A Love Eternal
by flyingbird
Summary: AU Angel is the son of the leader of his pack, werewolves, and one night he runs into Buffy who is having some trouble.
1. Introduction

Title: A Love Eternal

Author: flyingbird

Disclaimer: Any characters that you recognize don't belong to me. Any unfamiliar people you see are products of my own imagination

Summary: AU Angel is the leader of his pack (werewolves) and one night runs into Buffy who is having some trouble.

Rating: PG-13

A/N1: This is just some crazy idea that I got one day and I just had to write it down. I don't know how much time I will have to write but hopefully I'll be able to update regularly. Please let me know if you like it or not!

A/N2: Takes place in a world of only werewolves, no actual humans. Most everyone lives in a pack that has a leader, kinda like an alpha-male, and all of the pack members sort of follow them. Angel's pack lives in a large wooded area and that's where the entire story takes place.

1.

Her heart was beating wildly as her paws pounded on the ground, carrying her body swiftly through the trees. She didn't know where she was going and at the moment she didn't much care. After running for five days straight the she was too exhausted care, the only thought on her mind was escape from her pursuers. She knew they were close by, she could hear them running somewhere behind her and that thought alone caused her to quickly pick up her pace and push her body faster. She didn't know exactly what would happen to her if they ever caught up but she had a pretty good idea and didn't really want to find out for sure.

Parker and Riley had been after her for ever it seemed. Both were the sons of the illustrious leader of the Triven Pack and were well known to all werewolves. They had been causing trouble from a young age and though their pack wasn't especially known as a cruel one, those two certainly were. Parker tended to be the leader of the two, and consequentially it was his idea to pursue the youngest daughter of Hank Summers.

They had first met at a banquet hosted by the leader of a neighboring pack, the Crisol. Hank had gone to accompany the leader of his pack and had brought along his family: his mate, Joyce, and their two daughters Dawn and Buffy. At the time Dawn had been 10 and Buffy had been 8. Upon seeing her Parker declared that he absolutely had to have her and asked his father to speak with Hank about possibly arranging a marriage for sometime in the near future. This request was met with absolute refusal from both Hank and the leader of the pack. They stated firmly that Buffy was just an eight year old girl and they wouldn't be making such decisions about her future at such a young age. They left promptly after dinner had finished and decided to keep Buffy well away from the two of them, for the stories spreading around about the 17 and 15 year old weren't good to say the least. Both Joyce and Hank wanted much more for their youngest daughter and they had many years yet to find an appropriate match for her, for it was common among the female werewolves to mate anywhere from 15 to 18, with males of varying ages. The incident was soon forgotten and everyone moved along with their lives.

However, this was not to be. Parker never forgot about the beautiful young blond and she became an obsession of his and Riley's as well and the two decided that in the end she would be theirs. For the next five years they approached her at every opportunity they got, making lewd comments and trying to get her on their own. They were by no means above kidnapping her, in fact, that was their main goal. However, it was an unwritten law that females weren't allowed to walk through the woods unescorted by an older male, to ensure their safety, so it became increasingly difficult for them to put their plan into action, especially when Buffy grew up into a beautiful young girl. This didn't deter them for long however, and instead of giving up they simply formulated a new plan.

Of course, Buffy had been told about Parker and Riley and was warned to stay away from them. She knew that they were dangerous and anytime that she saw them while out in the woods her escort would immediately move her to safer grounds, however some times fighting was involved and Buffy would have to run to find help. It scared her that two people would be so determined, but apart from that she did manage have a fairly normal childhood. She and her sister were as close as could be and did almost everything together until Dawn found a potential mate and started spending time with him. Overall she had a very happy life, up until the moment that everything went wrong, the worse night of her life.

Now she was running for her life, listening with increasing desperation as her attackers drew closer and closer. At 14 years old she was pretty fast, but she knew that she couldn't out run them forever. Her breath was coming in pants and her whole body ached, tired from countless hours of running. She could hear both Parker and Riley howling to the moon and knew that the chase would be over soon. Just then she stumbled over an exposed tree root and fell, tumbling across the forest floor. She struggled to her feet as fast as she could and took off running again but seconds later came to a screeching halt.

Standing 20 feet in front of her, teeth bared and panting heavily, was Parker in his full wolf form. He was quite large and impressive, with a full coat of dark brown fur streaked with black. He growled softly at Buffy began to walk towards her slowly, drawing closer with every step he took. Trying not to panic, Buffy took a few steps backwards but then jumped as she hear another growl right behind her. Spinning around she found herself face to face with Riley, also in wolf form and also closing in on her. Although scared she was determined not to give up without a fight so she growled back and once again began backing away from the both of them. Growing up with a lot of boys had taught both her and her sister how to hold their own in a fight and she carefully began calculating how she could possibly get out of this situation. She didn't have much time to think because right then both males jumped at her and she had to act.

Meanwhile, Angel was strolling through the woods not far from where Buffy was being attacked. He had been feeling restless that night and just needed to get out for a little while to run amongst the trees. He had stopped now and was just walking around, considering going back to rejoin his pack. Just then he heard a noise up in the distance and perked up his ears in interest. It sounded like a fight and without thinking he took of running to see what was going on.

Upon arriving at the scene he was too stunned to move at first. A young female wolf was being surrounded by two older males, both of similar appearance, and they were growling menacingly. The female was limping and Angel could see she was injured as there was blood coating her side and one of her legs. Shaking his head he quickly brought his senses back and ran towards the quarreling pair. His approach didn't go unnoticed by any of the wolfs and he took the opportunity to growl menacingly at the two males. He bared his fangs and stood solidly, reading to pounce at a moment's notice. His was rather large and undeniably strong, with a sleek coat of the darkest black fur one could imagine. As the son of his pack's leader, he was fairly well known around the werewolf community, although he didn't recognize any of the wolves before him, maybe they were from a different area. He didn't know and didn't much care at the moment, his one and only priority was to rescue the young female before him.

Parker and Riley were both concerned with the appearance of this new male. They had never seen him before but they could tell he was exceptionally powerful. They hadn't planned on this and didn't know what to do. Should they take him? It would be two against one so the odds were in their favor. Angel growled again approached them, positioning himself directly in front of Buffy, who was by know laying on the ground as her injuries had become too much for her. All of his actions just screamed power and dominance and Parker hesitated to attack him. Angel however, not being one for patience at the moment, leapt at the two apprehensive males and clawed at them savagely, warning them that he was serious. Growling, Riley immediately backed off and soon Parker turned and followed him, running away through the woods.

Once he was sure that they had truly departed, Angel's gaze turned towards the wolf behind him. She was bleeding pretty profusely, the red blood staining her fur, and her breath was coming out in pants. She looked to be in a lot of pain and Angel couldn't help but wonder why she had been attacked. She was very young; she couldn't be any older than 15, and he felt an odd sort of protection for her. He though about all of his female friends in his pack, most of them were around this girl's age, and he became angry thinking about how any of them might become hurt. He could tell that she was scared of him, and if it wasn't for her injuries would have run away.

He tentatively reached out paw and touched her neck, signaling that he wasn't going to hurt her and just wanted to help. She closed her eyes in submission and soon after that lost consciousness. Angel, bending down, maneuvered his body until he managed to get her lying across his back. Carefully standing up, he began to make his way back to his pack's home, determined to help the young girl.


	2. What's going on?

2.

Running as fast as he could, Angel sighed in relief as he finally saw the entrance to his pack's cave. They had lived in the large cavern in the side of the mountain for hundreds of years, and he couldn't imagine living anywhere else. The entrance was hidden by an outcropping of rocks and a waterfall, so unless you knew it was there you would never be able to find it. He had only been carrying the mysterious female wolf for twenty minutes but yet he was still worried about her. He hadn't gotten too good a look at her injuries but from the blood he could tell that she had at least a few deep cuts. Angel knew that his pack would take care of her and he had to admit that he was really interested to find out what had happened. Changing out of his wolf form he gently gathered the female into his arms and rushed into the caves.

"Hurry, hurry! Someone get out here and help me!" shouted Angel, screeching to a halt, searching desperately for anyone who could help him.

"What's goin' on man?" questioned a lean bleach-blond. He emerged from a side cave followed by seven other teenagers, all with confused expressions. Upon seeing the bloodied wolf lying in their friends arms everyone came to a halt.

"I found her in the woods, there were two males there and it looked like they had been attacking her. I don't know how badly she's hurt but we need to get her patched up and soon, before she looses too much blood." Upon saying this Angel spotted his parents coming down the hall and rushed towards them.

"What's going on here Angel? I thought you went out for a while, are you back already?" questioned his father, Giles, the leader of the Raiselk pack.

"When I was out walking I found her surrounded by two other males and she was just lying on the ground and she looked pretty beat up. Please, can you help her?" Angel pleaded. He didn't know what it was about this young girl, but he knew that he wanted to help her and couldn't stand just watching her lying in his arms, bleeding.

"Okay Angel, just calm down, we'll help her," stated Giles mate, Jenny, as she stepped forward and put an hand on her sons arm, guiding him back into another side cave, this one equipped with chairs, a table and two couches. Angel gently lowered the girl onto one of the couches and then stood back, allowing for his mom to inspect her.

"You said you found her in the woods?" asked Gunn, one of Angel's best friends. All nine of the pack's teenagers had been extremely close since they had all been in diapers. Forming a deep friendship over years of being part of the Raiselk pack the nine of them were inseperable.

"Yeah, I was just out walking when I heard a bunch of noise and when I went to investigate I found her."

"She looks pretty beat up," added Willow, the red-head of the group, peering anxiously over the side of the couch at their unconscious guest, still in wolf form.

"Was she just out on her own? Where was her escort?" asked a disbelieving Spike. All of the males shared a look. They were all extremely protective of all of the females of their pack and none of them could ever imagine letting one of them wander around alone in the woods, especially at night. Although most of the werewolf packs were friendly, there were still a few who weren't and it was far from safe.

"Yeah, as far as I could tell she was alone. I didn't see anyone else around except for her attackers and something tells me that they weren't there to protect her," stated Angel.

"How long has she been uncounsious?" asked Giles.

"Since just after I got to her, is that a problem?"

"No, we are just going to have to get her back into her human form and then we can see about patching up her wounds and hopefully when she wakes up we can ask her some questions and get to the bottom of this mystery," reassured Jenny, amused at her son's over-protective behavior.

Every cleared away from the couch and allowed Jenny to move closer to her patient. By now other members of the pack had shown up, all curious as to the commotion taking place in one of their many living rooms. Before anyone could ask any questions Gunn quickly stepped up to them and explained the situation. Not wanting to make too much of a crowd, all of the adults backed off, dragging their children with them, although some escaped from their parent's clutches to run and gather around the prone form of the unfamiliar wolf.

She was really a very beautiful wolf, if it wasn't for the large amounts of blood staining her fur. By examination of the untainted spots on her coat, you could tell that she normally had a shiny silver coat, streaked with a dark black color which was concentrated mainly on her ears and paws. She was, by normal standards, petite and at the moment her size only added to her seeming frailness. Smiling, Willow went about ushering the kids out of the door and to their parents, aided by her friends, Fred, Faith and Cordelia. After the room was once again cleared, everyone turned their attention back to their guest.

Kneeling next to the couch, Jenny gently placed her hands on the girl's head, being careful not to hit any of her cuts. Closing her eyes, she chanted the ancient conversion spell which allowed any person with good intentions to change a werewolf from their wolf form to their human form. Everyone gasped as right before their eyes a young blond girl appeared, covered in blood and cuts, her eyes remaining closed. Jenny stood up and ushered them all out, including her mate and son, firmly shutting the door in all of their faces. Turning back to her young charge, she set to work.

An hour later she emerged from the room and went to join her husband who was eating a late dinner in the kitchen. Approaching him from behind she wrapped her arms around him, kissing his neck.

"Hey," she said, "I'm done."

"How bad was it? Do you think she's going to be alright?" questioned Giles anxiously.

"Oh yeah, she'll be fine. She had a few bad cuts and scrapes, not to mention numerous bruises, but I patched her all up. It's lucky that Angel found her when he did. I can't imagine what would have happened if she had been hurt even more."

"Has she woken up yet?" asked Giles, pulling his mate around in front of him.

"No, not yet, but I'm sure it will just be a matter of time. Hopefully sooner then later because I can't wait to get to the bottom of this mystery."

"Here here. Now what do you say to going and finding Angel? I'm sure that he's extremely anxious waiting for news." Chuckling, Jenny followed him out of the kitchen in search of her son. No doubt he was with his gang of friends, watching a movie.


	3. Waking up

A/N: I'm not exactly portraying the characters in the same way as the TV show. Buffy is a little more shy than she normally is but hey, luckily I can do what I want.

3.

Walking down the main long passage way of the caves, Giles and Jenny looked into various side rooms in search of their son or any of his friends, it was very uncommon to see any of the nine of them separated for too long. Turning into a side hall the two parents looked in to the teenager's favorite hang-out spot, and sure enough, there they found the nine of them sprawled out amongst an array of couches, watching a movie that was playing on TV. To no one's surprise, Faith was curled up into Spike's arms, lazily relaxing against him. Spike had started courting Angel's younger sister a year ago, after the relationship between the two of them had changed.

"Hey you guys, watcha watching?" asked Jenny as she walked into the room, Giles right on her heals.

"Jenny, hi!" answered Willow for the entire group. "How's that girl? Is she going to okay?"

"Oh of course. She only had a few serious cuts and I just bandaged her up. She's going to be fine. In fact, she's probably going to be waking up soon so I just thought…"

Jenny wasn't able to finish her sentence as every person in the room had gotten up and quickly exited the door, headed backs towards the front entrance of the cave where they hoped to finally solve the mystery Angel's mysterious guest. Smiling slightly to herself, Jenny grabbed her mate's hand and followed at a much slower pace.

Upon reaching the room currently housing the uncounsious girl, all nine teenagers slowed down and approached the door with caution. Peeking in, they saw her still lying on the couch, although this time there were white bandages wrapped around various parts of her body. As Angel gazed upon her he couldn't help but think about how helpless she looked, how broken, and he felt his heart grip to think about the two wolves that did that to her. He made a promise to himself right then, he would find those two and make them pay for their crime.

"Wow, she can't be any older than us," whispered Fred as she moved closer to the couch, gazing down upon the petite blond. Of the four girls of the group, both Willow and Fred were fourteen, Cordelia was fifteen and Faith was sixteen. The boys, on the other hand, were all a bit older. Spike and Angel had been born just two weeks apart and were currently both 18, along with Gunn who was a few months younger. Xander and Oz were both 17.

"Man, those are some nasty looking cuts!" declared Xander, taking not of the slightly blood soaked bandages.

"Yeah, I would not want to be in her position right now," agreed Faith.

"From what I saw it looked like she put up quite a fight before I got there. The two guys had some cuts on them and she was still standing when I arrived. She must have…" leaving his sentence hanging, Angel focused his attention on the girl who had just started to stir.

"Man, I think she's waking up!" exclaimed Spike, moving closer. "Should we get your parent's in here?" he questioned Faith who was once again in his arms.

"Oh, yeah! Hey, mom, dad, get in here!" she yelled. "I think that our new friend's waking up!"

Five seconds later, now with all eleven people gathered around her bed side table, Buffy blinked and then opened her eyes. She felt pain shoot through her entire body and groaned as she was brought back to full consciousness. Looking around her, she spotted eleven pairs of eyes, peering at her curiously and she immediately jolted up.

"Whoa there, why don't you stay lying down for a little while. You've gotten some pretty nasty injuries and I think you should rest for a little while," said Jenny, smiling at the now awake and very confused girl.

Choosing to completely disregard the suggestion, Buffy sat up fully, ignoring the throbbing pain she could feel in both of her legs, her arm and around her neck and shoulders. She had no idea how she had gotten here, or where here was for that matter, and it was starting to freak her out. Looking down at her lap she tried to think about what had happened. The last thing that she could remember was fighting for her life against Parker and Riley, and then someone else had arrived, but that was all she could remember.

Chancing another look at her surroundings she noticed that most of the people around her were around her age, still teenagers and it relaxed her a bit to notice the reassuring smiles that they all wore. Looking around she also spotted the two adults the room, they looked to be mates as they were holding each other's hands. Gathering up her strength, Buffy took a deep breath before speaking.

"Where am I?" she questioned, looking expectantly at the people around her.

"Oh my gosh, sorry," blustered Giles, stepping forward and assuming the role of informant on behalf of the entire group. "You are currently in the home of the Raiselk pack. I am the leader of our pack and so let me graciously welcome you to our home."

"The Raiselk pack?" squeaked Buffy. She hadn't ever heard of that pack but in her situation you couldn't trust just anybody and she was very wary of meeting strangers at this time. "Are you going to hurt me?" It never hurt to be blunt.

"What?" exclaimed Angel, completely taken aback by her question.

"Good heavens, no!" declared Giles, appalled at the very suggestion. "We only mean to help you. We would never of hurting you!"

"My son found you in the woods," offered Jenny, deciding to step in to the conversation. "He said he saw you being attacked by two males so he drove them off and brought you back here when he saw that you had passed out. Did you want to tell us what happened?"

Looking around at all the teenagers present before her, Buffy's gaze finally settled on a young man with dark brown hair and dreamy chocolate eyes that you could just drown in. Upon seeing her looking at him Angel smiled back at her, twitching his lips up into a sexy smirk.

"Y-yo-you saved me from them?" she asked, her voice coming out shakily. Upon seeing his nod she continued. "Th-thank you, really, I'm very grateful. I thought that I was a goner for sure."

"It was no problem," Angel replied. "I was just out walking when I heard you guys fighting. Why were they after you anyways?"

"Well, they've been after me for a while. I guess they finally just got an opportunity to get me on my own after all these years."

"They've been after you for years!" asked Angel in disbelief.

Not realizing what she had said, Buffy assumed a sheepish expression as she refused to meet the gaze of her hosts.

"Well, yeah, they have been after me for years," she admitted. "But it hasn't ever been this bad before. This was the first time that they've ever gotten me alone and I was so tired from running for so many days I guess it was easier for them to attack me."

All of the occupants of the room were silent. They all gazed with open mouths at the young girl who had just been dropped into their lives. She did look exhausted. If you stared hard enough you could make out the bags under her eyes, darkening her otherwise seemingly light complexion. Embarrassed and not knowing what to do, Buffy slowly struggled to stand up and make her way to the door. She didn't get too far though as the injuries in her legs caused them to give out from underneath her. Before her body could slam against the floor a pair of large, strong arms wrapped around her middle and stopped her downward descent. Leading her back to the couch, Angel gently helped her to sit back down.

"Th-thanks again. For saving me, I mean," said Buffy, her cheeks turning red from embarrassment.

"No big, but I don't think that you should be up and walking just yet. Why don't you just stay sitting down for a little while," replied Angel, grinning all the while.

"Yeah, you're probably right." She grinned right back at him. "But," she hastened to add, "I really should be going. You guys have already done enough for me, I don't want to be an inconvenience."

"Nonsense," declared Giles. "We would be more than happy to have you stay here with us, for as long as you need to fully recuperate your strength. You are obviously in no shape to be traveling."

"Of course my mate is right," agreed Jenny. "But now, before we get to those details, why don't you tell us what was going on." Seeing the girl's hesitation, she rushed to reassure her. "You can just start with your name if want dear."

Knowing that these kind people did deserve an explanation she just sighed an then began her story.

"Well, my name is Buffy, and I'm part of the Yulli pack."

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	4. Discussions

4.

"The Yulli pack?" questioned Xander, a confused expression on his face. Seeing everyone else wearing mirror expressions Buffy hastened to elaborate.

"You probably haven't heard of us, we live a long way away from here. I've been running for a few days." Taking another deep breathe she continued on. "Well, the two boys who attacked me tonight are pretty well known where I'm from. Their the sons of the leader of the Triven pack, Parker and Riley. Have you heard of them?"

Seeing everyone around her shaking their heads, she continued on.

"Well, there's basically been conflict between the three of us for about seven years now. We-we met at a banquet about seven years ago and they asked about arranging a marriage between me and one of them, but my parents refused them. Well, I-I guess they didn't want to take n-no for an answer because they wouldn't leave me alone. They kept trying to see me a-and they started to harr-harass me."

At this point Buffy was unable to continue and looked helplessly down at her feet, her eyes welling with unshed tears. Over her childhood her entire pack had been so supportive of her, always looking after her and protecting her. Even so, the ever looming presence of her stalkers had at times dampened her spirits, and they were the reason for her current predicament. She was among strangers in a foreign land, tired and injured, and they were still out there, searching for her.

Jenny, upon seeing the emotions coursing through Buffy, decided to step in and end the conversation, at least for now.

"Okay, it's okay sweetie," murmured Jenny as she stepped forward, rubbing the young girl's back gently just as one tear escaped from her eye and rolled down her cheek, staining her already dirty face. "It's getting to be pretty late and I'm sure that you're just exhausted after the ordeal that you've been through." Looking up, Buffy smiled tearfully at her savior.

"Now, off to bed for all of." Standing up and planting her hands firmly on her hips, Jenny stared down the teenage portion of her pack.

"Mommmm!" whined Faith, rolling her eyes. "I think that we're a little to old to be having a bedtime."

"Yeah," grinned Spike, rubbing one of his hands across Faith's belly. "This 'eres so much more exciting then sleepin'."

"Come on guys!" interjected Willow. "It's well past midnight and I'm sure that Buffy will still be here in the morning." Smiling at her hopefully new friend, Willow continued. "All of us girls are heading off to bed, so we'll see you in the morning. It was really nice to meet you Buffy." With that she hopped off the couch and proceed to drag both Faith and Cordelia out the door, followed by an amused and willing Fred. Seeing that all of the girls had left, the boys stood up and decided to follow suit, heading of to their bedrooms which were located in various areas of the numerous caves that made up their home. Murmuring their goodbyes to both Buffy and their pack leader and his mate they exited after the four girls. Upon reaching the door Angel paused for a moment to turn back to Buffy, glancing at her for a few seconds and then proceeding out. This left only three people in the room.

"Well, our guest rooms aren't much but at the moment we don't have anything else to offer you," declared Giles, shrugging apologetically and breaking through the previous silence.

"Oh really, I don't want to intrude…" began Buffy, only to be immediately cut off by Jenny.

"Oh come on! You're clearly in no shape to be leaving tonight and you are in no way putting us out. We would love to have you stay with us, for as long as you want. Anyways, Angel and his friends seem to be quite taken with you already." She added this part with a bit of a teasing smile.

"Angel?" asked Buffy with a confused expression.

"My son, the one who found you. He and his sister, Faith, are my only two children," provided Jenny lightly.

"Oh, okay."

Deciding that it couldn't hurt to stay here for a while, just to regain her strength, Buffy offered and sincere smile of gratitude and nodded her head gently, adding a small statement of agreement to their plans.

"Great! Oh, by the way, I'm Jenny, and this is mate, Giles."

"It's really nice to meet," replied Buffy.

Getting up, moving forward, Giles brushed a quick kiss against his mate's lips and then moved towards the door.

"Well, why don't I leave you two so that Jenny can show you your room Buffy. It's a pleasure to have you here Buffy. I'll see the both of you in the morning."

With that he was gone and Jenny was up and on her feet, beckoning to her newest guest to follow her down the hallway, supposedly to where the guest room were. Carefully easing her body up and off of the couch, Buffy followed her at a cautious pace, all the while being mindful of her newfound injuries. As she passed various rooms she would chance a glance inside of the ones that were open, and what she saw astounded her. Each room was decorated with rich, beautiful colors and had a warm, welcoming air about them. Her pack had lived in a system of permanent tents situated between the trees, and her current surrounding were a bit new to her.

Looking back behind her shoulder, Jenny grinned upon seeing Buffy's wide-eyed expression, starring open-mouthed at all of the rooms they passed. Coming to the end of a short hallway right off the main one, she stopped and gently turned the door knob, allowing it to swing open, revealing the room within. It was fairly small with a minimal amount of decorations, but that didn't matter as the only thing that Buffy saw was the medium-sized, welcoming bed situated against the side of the room. She suddenly felt just how tired she was and could feel all the muscles in her body just screaming out for rest.

"Sorry about the room, but our usual guest rooms are under some construction right now. They got a little water damage after the big storm we had last month and this is the best we've been able to put together so far. Anyways, I hope it's okay." Jenny could tell how tired the young blond was and couldn't help but smile at the way Buffy was eyeing the room.

"Oh no! It's great, really," assured Buffy. "Thank you, it's really great."

"I'm glad that it will work for you for now. Well, I can tell your tired so I'll just leave you to go to bed. If your hungry when you wake up just come on down to the kitchen, it's right down the main hallway to your right," she gestured with her hand back the way they had come. "I'll see you in the morning. Good night."

"Good night," Buffy replied as Jenny retreated down the hallway and then once again focused her attention on the bed. Slowly entering the room, she glanced around once more before rushing to the bed and gently lowering her body down onto it. It had been several days since she had slept in a bed, or slept at all for that matter, as she had been running through the woods. The last thought that passed through her head before drifting off to sleep was how easy it would be to drown in Angel's soulful eyes.

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	5. New Friends

5.

* * *

Although Buffy hadn't slept in many days and her a good rest would have done her some good, she found her dreams to be plagued with unwanted memories and nightmarish scenes. What would normally be a time of peace was converted into something similar to a horror film and Buffy found herself tossing and turning all night long. She would have remained this way too if it wasn't for the loud slamming of sound of metal on wood that resonated throughout her previously silent room.

Jerking up in bed, a simultaneous "OW!" and "Sorry!" could be heard ringing out. Wincing slightly, Buffy readjusted her weight on her bed, mindful of her injuries, and glanced around her current room, looking for the intruder. Her eyes quickly settled on a young red-head, probably about her age, who was standing next to the table in the corner wearing a nervous smile.

"Hi, I'm Willow," she volunteered. "You might remember me from last night, or maybe not because you were sort of tired and everything and I know that I don't remember every person I meet, especially when it's only for a little while so…"

"I remember you," said Buffy, grinning at the girl's babbling, a habit that her sister had accused her of numerous times. She did remember the girl from last night. She had been the one who had gotten everyone to leave when she had broken down in front of them.

"Oh, well, that's good then," sighed Willow, relieved. "Anyways, sorry about waking you up and everything, and coming into your room, but you kind of slept through breakfast and we thought that you might be hungry." Reaching over to the tray that she had set down she gestured to the array of food that she had brought with her. There was an egg, toast and an apple, and off to the side there was some sort of drink that looked suspiciously like tea. "Since you said that you've kind of been, 'traveling', for a while we weren't sure if you've eaten anything in a long time."

"Wow, I really slept through breakfast?" questioned Buffy, looking surprised. She had no idea that it had been that long and was a little embarrassed that she hadn't woken up. Seeing the look on the blonde's face Willow rushed to reassure her.

"It's no big, really. We weren't exactly expecting you to wake up anytime soon, I mean last night you looked really tired and everything." With a grin, she continued. "Besides, Xander's still sleeping and I doubt that he'll be up any time soon."

Glad upon that news, Buffy decided to keep talking with Willow. She seemed really nice and growing up mainly with only boys her age, not including her sister, she was desperate for some female companionship.

"So, Xander, which one was he again?"

"Hmm, well, he's kinda tall and has darkish brown hair."

"In think I know who you're talking about, but you don't mean Angel, do you?" asked Buffy, a little confused as to who was who.

"Oh no, he's definitely not Angel," grinned Willow, thinking about just how different the two were. Of course they were both good friends but where Xander was goofy and sometimes clueless, Angel was strong and mysterious. "Definitely two different people."

"Okay," said Buffy, also grinning at the expression on her hopefully friend's face. "So, who else was there last night that I should know about?"

"Well, let's see. You of course know Giles and Jenny, Giles is the leader of our pack in Jenny's his mate. They're really great. And then there's their two children, you know Angel and then there's his sister Faith," said Willow, listing off her information with a concentrative look on her face.

"Yeah, Jenny mentioned both Faith and Angel last night. Which one was Faith again?"

"Do you remember the bleach-blond guy with the accent?" Upon seeing Buffy's nod of agreement Willow continued on. "Well, she was the dark-haired girl hanging all over him."

"Oh, okay, that was Faith. Well, so we have Jenny and Giles, Angel, Faith and Xander, and then of course we have you, Willow right?" Upon seeing the girls nod she continued on. "I know that there was a lot more people than that last night. So, who's the bleach-blond?"

"Oh, that would Spike."

"Spike?" chuckled Buffy, amused upon hearing such a name. Willow grinned right back.

"Yeah, I know, name's a little interesting and all but it does seem to suit him. He and Angel are like twins, they were only born a few weeks apart."

"A-are Spike and Faith like, mates or something?" asked Buffy, slightly nervous and embarrassed about asking such a question, but curious just the same. Willow smiled, showing that she didn't mind the question in the least.

"No, but I'm sure it will only be a matter of time. He started courting her about a year ago and they're really close. It was so funny, you should have seen how Angel reacted when he found out that Spike was interested in his baby sister. He got all upset and over-protective, he even went and punched Spike when he caught the two of them kissing on the couch one night!"

"Oh my god, you're kidding me!" laughed Buffy. She could perfectly see Angel as the protective type. Though she hardly knew him at all, just the way that he had been looking at her all of last night, not to mention the fact that he had saved her, indicated his personality. It was a lot of fun just sitting here, talking with Willow about the teenage members of her pack.

"Oh yeah, it was hilarious! He got over it though. Although it did take all of us girls and his parents to make him see how stupid he was being. I'm glad he's over it though, Spike and Faith make such a cute couple!" As she was saying this, Willow made her way over to the bed and sat down upon the edge, making herself comfortable. Upon seeing the red-head's change in position, Buffy smiled to herself, glad to have the company of someone who was so easy to talk to.

"Well, what about you? Do you have a mate?" asked Buffy, raising her eyes teasingly.

"Oh, n-n-no, I don't have a mate," replied Willow, blushing furiously and looking away. She had had crush on Oz for two years now but was too shy to say anything. "Wh-what about you!" she retaliated, pleased when she saw Buffy's cheeks turning red and grinning triumphantly.

"Me?" stuttered Buffy, completely taken by surprise. "No! I grew up with a bunch of guys though. Me and my sister were the only girls our age in my pack, the rest were either babies or already mated and had babies of their own."

"Wow, so you've, like, never had any female friends?" asked Willow in disbelief.

"Well, no. But my sister and I were really close, she was just two years older than me."

"Man, I don't know what I'd do if there weren't any girls around to talk to. I'd probably go crazy! Well, no that I'm your friend, I me-mean, th-that is if y-you want to…" she stuttered and finally died off, embarrassed that she had assumed that Buffy would want to be her friend. For all she knew Buffy though she was just annoying and couldn't wait for her to go away, although she really hoped not because she loved talking with her.

"That would be nice, if we could be friends," agreed Buffy, amused at the embarrassed look on her friend's face.

"Oh, that's great! Cool, well, you must be hungry. I mean, here I am just babbling away when I was supposed to be bringing you your breakfast." Getting up again she walked over and picked up the tray, bringing it back and handing it to Buffy. After she was sure that the tray was secure she resumed her seat on the edge of the bed. She just watched silently for a few minutes as Buffy quickly consumed the offered food.

"Ouch!" hissed Buffy as the tray brushed against one of the bandages on her leg.

"Are you okay?" asked an anxious Willow, concerned about the nasty looking cuts on the girl's legs.

"Yeah, it's just these stupid injuries. Man, I would love to hurt those guys right now! Actually," she amended, glancing down at her bruised and battered body, "maybe it's safest right now to not get anywhere near them."

Grinning at her dry sense of humor, Willow immediately switched back to concerned.

"Are you sure that you're okay, I mean those don't look good," she said, gesturing to the bandages.

"Oh yeah, it's fine, for now, at least. Anyways," she continued, resuming her meal, " tell me more about your friends."

"Let's see, who haven't I mentioned?"

"Well, you had just finished telling me about Angel and how mad he got when he found out that Spike was courting his sister.

For the next two hours both girls remained in the guest room, just talking, mainly about Willow and the members of her pack, especially the teenage ones. Buffy learned that Spike wasn't originally a member of the Raiselk pack but had been 'adopted' in a sense when his pack had decided to move far away and Spike had wanted to remain with all of his friends. He had never exactly gotten along very well with his parents, or anyone else for that matter, so when Giles had offered him a spot in the pack he readily excepted and officially moved in when he was just five years old. Everyone else had been born into the pack but nobody thought any less of Spike. He was a very dedicated member and was just like family so there were no problems.

Next Willow proceeded to tell her about Gunn and Fred, and how the two liked each other but both were too stubborn to say or do anything about it. With an evil grin she shared her friends' plan to get the two of them together and Buffy laughed a the scheming. Apparently Xander was the official goof-ball and both Fred and Willow were the declared scholars, although Angel wasn't bad. There weren't any actual school to attend but it was up to the pack to provide education for their young and on most week-days there was some sort of learning going on which was monitored by various adults. Oz was the sort of taciturn guy who didn't say much, but Buffy could tell just by listening to Willow the girl was enamored. She didn't say anything yet though, waiting for her friend to admit it first.

Cordelia was the official fashion-expert. She made sure that everybody was dressed appropriately. Despite the sarcasm in Willow's description, Buffy could tell that the girls shared a deep friendship and that she was only joking. Faith was apparently just like Angel in some respects. Both were tough and very protective of their friends and family, although they certainly had their differences. Where Faith was outgoing and energetic at all times, Angel was more reserved and enjoyed time to himself, supposedly to 'reflect' or something like that. Unfortunately the girls' conversation got cut sort with the arrival of Jenny around 12:30.

"I though I might find you girl in here," she smiled, glad to see that they were getting along so well.

"Oh my gosh! How long have been talking?" gasped Willow, who had completely lost track of time as she had been lost in getting to know the young blond. They had discovered that they were both 14 and had a fondness for babies. Both had, on numerous occasion looked after the young children of members of their pack and Willow had promised to show Buffy her Aunt's new baby girl, who was only 3 months old.

"Oh, it's fine Willow. It's a Saturday and there isn't anything that you need to be doing. I see that you did manage to get Buffy her breakfast though. I thought you might be pretty hungry," see said, addressing the last part to Buffy.

"I was, and thank you. The food was delicious."

"Oh, don't thank me, you'll have to find Angel for that. He's a great cook and usually on Saturday morning he makes breakfast for everybody, to give our usual cook a break." Willow nodded avidly, thinking about just how good of a cook Angel really was. It was a tradition that on a person's birthday he would cook them whatever they wanted and the meals were famous for their deliciousness.

"Well then, remind me to thank him the next time that I see him," Buffy replied.

"It's almost lunch time, I was thinking that the two of you might want to emerge sometime soon and join us for lunch."

"Oh yeah, of course, we should do that," giggled Willow, thinking how jealous all of her friends would be when they found out that she had gotten to know their guest so well.

"Right, we should," agreed Buffy.

"Anyways, dear, I think that we should probably take a look at those cuts of your and apply new bandages, some blood soaked though on some of them."

"Okay, yeah, that would be great," replied Buffy, glad that she wouldn't be kicked out now that she had been fed and allowed to rest.

"So, just come on out when you're ready. I'm sure that Willow can show you the way." Upon seeing Willow's nod, she said her good byes and then backed out of the room, thinking what a wonderful addition Buffy would make to their pack.

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Thanks for the great reviews guys! I'm glad that you like this fic. I hope that I'mm updating fast enough for all of you. I have a bunch of free time right now so I'm trying to write as much as I can. 


	6. Thank You

_Thanks to everybody for the awesome reviews! I'm glad to hear that everyone is liking it so far. Just a note, I hadn't realized that I had the little anonymous review button disabled so sorry to any anonymous reviewers who tried to review and couldn't. Hopefully it works now._

_Anyways, on to the story!_

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6.

Upon hearing the door click behind Jenny as she left, Willow and Buffy turned back towards each other, smiling. They had been having so much fun and time just seemed to fly. It was great, in Buffy's opinion, to finally have a female friend, and from what she had heard from Willow, she couldn't wait to meet the rest of the gang.

"Well, Jenny's right, we probably should go out and join those guys for lunch," declared Willow, deciding to break the silence. "So, do you want to head down there, or what?"

Looking down at her attire, Buffy sighed. She had left her home so suddenly and there was no chance for her to grab any of her clothes. When Jenny had been bandaging up her injuries, her old clothes had been removed and instead were replaced with a loose pair of sweat-pants and a loose-fitting t-shirt. She didn't know whose they were but she was very grateful for the loan. Still, she didn't know if her outfit was appropriate or not for lunch.

Guessing at her train of thoughts, Willow rushed to reassure her.

"What your wearing is fine, don't worry. It's not going to be formal at all, trust me, we're just going to grab some food to eat and see what everyone else is doing."

Smiling at how obvious she had been, Buffy just nodded her head and then proceeded to gently ease herself up and off of the bed. Not knowing how to help exactly Willow just stood by and made sympathetic noises as she witnessed exactly how painful it was for her friend to move. When she was finally up and moving the two of them made their way to the door and then out and down the hallway, heading towards the kitchen where they hoped to run into the other teenage members of the pack.

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Meanwhile, Angel and the rest of his friends were sitting around one of the kitchen tables, talking and laughing about the funny incident they had witnessed that morning which had involved a young couple, their newborn twins and a meal of mashed-up spinach. To get to the point, it had ended with two giggling babies and a room and all its occupants covered in green goop. They hadn't done much that morning, mostly just sitting around and talking about Buffy and the little they knew about her from what she had said last night.

The kitchen was a fairly big place and people kept popping in and out, grabbing a bite to eat and maybe sitting down for a little while to chat or to just take a break. All eight of them were wondering where Willow had gotten off to, but they didn't have long to wait because right at that moment the subject of their thoughts walked through the door, accompanied by a limping blond.

Upon spotting her friends all sitting around one of the tables, Willow smiled and gave them a small wave before slowly making her way over to them with Buffy in tow.

"Hey guys! What's going on?" she was excited about having made a new friend and couldn't wait to see if Buffy would get along with group.

"Nothing Wills," drawled Xander, an amused expression marring his face. "Just wondering where you've been all this time. If I didn't know any better I would think that you were purposely trying to avoid us."

"Ha ha, yeah right," replied Willow right back. "Like you even knew I wasn't here. I bet you've only been awake for a few minutes, not enough time to even notice that I was missing."

"So, I have connections in **very** high places," he scoffed, indicating the group of teenagers surrounding him.

"Well, if you must know I was getting to know our new guest," she sighed, sounding exasperated.

Buffy's cheeks immediately turned red as nine pairs of eyes focused in on her. Awkwardly shifting on her feet and smoothing out invisible wrinkles on her sweatpants, she gave a nervous smile and managed a meek "Hi".

"Hey, B, what's happnin'?" asked Faith. She could tell how uncomfortable the girl was and hoped to relieve some of the tension.

"I'm good, though very much in pain," responded Buffy, starting to relax upon hearing the easy tone in Faith's voice. Everyone laughed, although afterwards Angel spoke up, looking uneasy.

"Are you sure that you're okay though?" He sounded so concerned and Buffy's heart almost melted at the cute picture he presented.

"Oh yeah, I'm good, just a bit sore, in most places." As she was talking Angel got up off his chair and offered it to her, giving a teasing, gentlemanly bow. Smiling, Buffy moved forward and sat down while behind her Willow was simply gushing as she thought about how cute a couple the two would make. "Listen, thank you again for rescuing me, I wasn't going to last for much longer out there."

Before Angel could respond, Willow began jumping slightly up and down, looking excited.

"Oh, remember, you asked me to remind you to thank Angel for the delicious breakfast too!"

"And you should probably thank him for letting you wear his clothes too," volunteered Cordelia, speaking up. "I mean, no offense or anything, but those really aren't your size. Although I suppose everybody's different."

"Man Cordy, have some tact!" whispered Xander, smacking the girl lightly on the shoulder.

"What?" Everyone simply rolled their eyes.

"W-well, I guess I apparently have a lot to thank you for. With the whole breakfast thing, and then the clothes thing, and I…" stuttered Buffy, beginning to babble and blushing all over again.

"It's okay, really," assured Angel, cutting her off and through a sexy half-grin her way. "It's no problem, just glad that I could help out." He grinned at her as he moved away from the table and toward the refrigerator. Addressing both Buffy and Willow, he asked if either of them would like him to make them up a sandwich, indicating the food that was already on everybody's plate.

"Oh, no, that's okay, you don't have to do that," rushed Buffy.

"Come on, you already know what a great cook he is Buffy!" exclaimed Willow, exasperated with her friend's stubbornness. "Angel, can you make me a turkey sandwich with, umm, wheat bread?"

"Yeah, no problem, Buffy?" The anxious and eager look in his eyes was enough to do her in.

"I'll have the same, thanks." After a short pause, she added, "You know, I really should come up with a plan to repay my debt to you."

Everybody laughed at this and Angel just shrugged. "What can I say, I'm a giver." This only succeeded in making everyone laugh harder.

Lunch passed in basically the same manner, with enjoyable conversation flowing freely between the teens. Buffy spent the entire time getting to know everyone better and amusing herself as she witnessed the antics of the group, bantering back and forth. She found herself wistfully imagining herself as part of them, but as soon as the thought entered her mind, she pushed it away. She knew that she would have to leave soon. However, it was fun to meet all the people who were moving through the kitchen. A woman even asked her if she would be interested, when she was healed of course and if she was still there, to baby-sit her children. Smiling, Buffy had agreed at once, missing her work taking care of the young members of her pack.

Eventually the group decided to move out of the kitchen and to some place more comfortable. Seeing as how it was raining outside they agreed that the best plan was to stay inside so they made their way to one of the many recreation rooms, intent on watching another movie. However, before they could make it all the way there, Angel suddenly stopped.

"I almost forgot, Jenny wanted me to remind you to go and see her sometime today, so she can look at your cuts," he said, talking to Buffy.

"Oh, okay, I guess I'll just go and find her again then," she replied, sounding sad. Misinterpreting his meaning, she thought that Angel was just trying to get rid of her. Turning, she began to move away and back down the hall.

"No, wait, let me help you find her," he rushed to say, noting the tone in her voice. "It's a pretty big place and you have no idea where you're going." Waving his friends on, he moved over to Buffy and began walking away with her, completely missing the knowing looks that his friends were exchanging behind his back.

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_Love it? Hate it? Let me know!_

_Well, I tried to go over this chapter and fix all mistakes, so I hope I didn't miss any!_


	7. Talking and Injuries

_Okay guys, I'm trying to get some more Buffy/Angel action in here, but unfortunately they aren't quite up for a romance yet, so just hang in there! This chapter is basically just some interaction between BA, plus a little bit of information on Buffy's past thrown in for good measure. Sorry!_

_Jess: Thanks for the review! Okay, first of all, I have honestly never even thought about the whole electricity in the cavern thing. Let's just assume for fanfictional purposes that they are able to have electricity, even though they are in the side of a mountain. My basic idea of the werewolf population is that they are just like our current day humans, but they have the ability to turn into a wolf during the full moon, though I might change this a bit, we'll see. I hope that that's okay with everyone. As for your question about why Buffy's pack isn't looking for her, it's coming up I pomise!. Believe it or not, but I do have some sort of a plan. Scary, huh? Anyways, I hope that that answers all of your questions. If not, just let me know!_

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7.

Angel and Buffy walked side by side down the hallway, neither of them saying anything although the awkward silence was starting to become uncomfortable. Neither person knew what to say and so they just opted for the no talking route. As they continued along Angel kept stealing sidelong glances at Buffy, watching her out of the corner of his eyes. Using the silence as a good opportunity to sort through his thoughts, he attempted to make sense of the confusing emotions which were coursing through his body.

There was no denying that Buffy intrigued him, she was a beautiful young woman with a mysterious past. He still wasn't exactly sure what her entire story was. All he really knew for sure was that two male werewolves had been after her, for some time apparently, and this time around they had done some serious danger to her. Where was her pack? That was the part that confused him the most. She hadn't spoken of them, except for a few times but only briefly and with no real detail. If she was a member of his pack he would never let her out of his sight. He had noticed that he was feeling uncharacteristically protective over the young blond. Well, sure, he was overprotective about his friends and family, but he hardly knew this girl. And what was with the sudden urge he had to grin stupidly every time he looked at her?

Suddenly deciding that his thoughts were becoming too troubling for their own good, Angel turned to his companion and tried to strike up a conversation with her.

"So, you mentioned before that you weren't from here."

"What?" Buffy had been drifting amongst her own thoughts and was taken completely by surprise with the sudden question. Angel just laughed at the confused look which was marring her beautiful features.

"Earlier, when you first woke up, you said that we probably hadn't heard of your pack because you lived quite a ways from here," he reminded her helpfully.

"Oh, right," she blushed, for what seemed like hundredth time that day. "Yeah, we live quite a few leagues from here I guess. I don't know the exact distance, seeing as I don't exactly know where here is," she shrugged noncommittally.

"What was your home like?" he questioned, hoping to get some sort of information out of her about her pack.

"Well, my pack lived in a completely wooded area," she began. For some reason, she didn't mind talking to Angel about her pack, he just had an easy presence about him that made her relax. "I remember when I was really young we used to move around a lot, we were kind of nomadic I guess," she paused, a thoughtful expression on her face. Angel simply nodded. He had heard of some packs that had never settled down in one area before, but just kept moving around.

"Anyways," she continued on, "my father decided when I was about three years old that we should find a permanent place to settle so he choose this one spot among a bunch of trees and we set up some permanent tents there. A few people decided to set up their tents higher up in the trees, instead of on the ground. You would have to climb a latter if you wanted to get up there, and whenever I would go up I was always afraid that I would fall down again, though luckily I never did." She paused for a moment, thinking, and then went on.

"There were hardly any girls my age in our pack, so mainly I just played with the boys. There was usually a lot to do, when we weren't being forced to study by our parents. We were right next to a river and me and my sister used to have so much fun playing in the water, sometimes we would stay out there for hours and my mom and dad would have to forcefully drag us in when it started to get dark." Despite her small smile, Angel could sense the underlying sadness masked within her voice, and he realized that it must be a hard subject for her.

"Was your father the leader of your pack?" he questioned, intent on getting her back in a good mood again, hoping to be graced with her radiant smile. There would be time later to find out the source of her sudden sadness, but now was not the time.

"Yeah, he was," replied Buffy, her expression instantly lightening. "He and my mom were good leaders. Our pack was pretty small but it was always peaceful and everyone got along really well. I always used to want to be just like them when I grew up. My entire life plan was to find a handsome male to be my mate and…" Realizing just what she had said, Buffy stopped abruptly and quickly covered her eyes with her hands and shook her head, thoroughly humiliated.

"Let's just pretend that I didn't say that, okay?" she pleaded with Angel, a small pout forming on her face.

"Well," he teased, "normally I wouldn't just let a statement like that lie but this is my mother's office so I guess I'll have to leave it there." Giving a mock sigh of disappointment, he came to a halt in front of a solid oak and raised his hand to knock.

"Thank god! Saved by the, well, I guess the door," declared Buffy, glad for the narrow escape. She couldn't believe that she had just said that to him, one of the sexiest guys she had ever laid eyes on. Now he must think that she was just some stupid little girl, if he hadn't been thinking that already.

Suddenly the door opened and the two of them were beckoned inside by a distracted Giles, who was reading a very old book by the looks of it.

"Hey," Angel greeted him. "Where's mom? We were hoping that she could look at Buffy's injuries and see if they needed to be re-bandaged."

"Oh, yes, well, she just stepped out for a moment to talk to Marie about some sort of animal or such that has somehow found its way into our gardens." By the look on his face, you could tell that he had next to no clue about what his wife was doing at the moment, too immersed in his book to give them his full attention. "Anyways, she'll be back soon, I'm sure. Just go ahead and sit down, make yourselves comfortable." Gesturing to the couch situated against the wall, he moved away again to the desk in the corner and returned his undivided attention to his book.

Shrugging his shoulders, Angel made his way to the couch and Buffy followed him obediently. Once they were sitting down comfortably, Angel turned back to Buffy, intent on continuing their conversation from before.

"So, you're the daughter of your pack leader. Was it just you and your sister?" he questioned. Most of the pack leaders that he knew had a son to continue their line, and he was curious to hear about what would happen if one had only female offspring.

"Yeah, just the two of us." Sensing the direction of his question, she continued on with her explanation. "When Dawn, my sister, got older, they decided that her mate should become the next leader. A young man from a neighboring pack was courting her. He was really very nice, and a complete gentleman. She really liked him and I think they would have become mates, if not for…" Realizing her slip at once, Buffy instantly shut her mouth.

"If not for what?" asked Angel, wondering at the sudden silence from the girl.

"Nothing, it's nothing, really," assured Buffy, although she was unsuccessful in convincing the dark-haired youth. Luckily, Jenny chose that exact moment to enter the room and she was once again saved her from her untimely slips. Noticing his mother's entrance immediately, Angel just shot a look at Buffy, as if to say that this wasn't over yet, and then moved off of the couch and over to speak with his mother.

"Mom, hey, we came by because you mentioned you wanted to take a look at Buffy's injuries again today," he said, as way of greeting.

"Oh, great. Yeah, I do want to take a look at those," she said, moving over to where Buffy was still sitting. Angel was making his way to the door, uncertain if he was still welcome or not, but Jenny called him back.

"Why don't you stay, Angel? This won't take long and I'm sure that after I'm done Buffy will need someone to help her find her way back to you guys."

"Um, okay, sure," he agreed, glancing over to Buffy to see her reaction to the suggestion, but she only smiled at him.

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Well, in the end it turned out to be a very good thing that Angel had stayed. Buffy was having a hard time dealing with the treatment of her wounds and needed some back up. Currently, she was lying back on the couch as Jenny meticulously removed the bandages around the slice along the outside of her right leg, and if the pressure being applied to his hand was any indication, the process was extremely painful. After almost ripping apart the pillow she had been grasping, Jenny had suggested that Buffy hold on to Angel's hand instead. She hadn't yet drawn blood, but in his opinion it was only a matter of time.

"Alright, Buffy, we're almost done, just hang in there," reassured Jenny, sympathizing with the young girl. The bandages were sticking to her skin due to the large amounts of dried blood on them, and removing them had been a tricky business. "Get ready now, because I'm going to pour some disinfectant on this one, so it's going to sting again, but after this I'm done, I promise," she rushed to reassure, catching the helpless look the blond was sending her way.

"It's okay Buffy, it's almost over," murmured Angel as he stroked the back of her hand comfortingly, attempting to calm her down. He had been through his fair of injuries, though he couldn't recall any that had been as bad as this. It made his blood boil in anger to think about those two guys doing this to her. He vowed that somehow he would track them down and make them pay for what they had done.

Gritting her teeth together, Buffy squeezed her eyes shut tight and grasped Angel's hand in a death grip as the disinfectant was dabbed on the cut. She had never been this seriously injured in her life, and it was definitely not an experience that she wanted to repeated ever again. Slowly opening her eyes once again she watched as Jenny carefully wrapped a new, clean bandage over her wound and secured it with several pieces of medical tape. Then moving away, she gave Buffy's uninjured arm a light, apologetic squeeze, and then went to put away her supplies.

Extremely grateful that Buffy had stopped gripping his hand so hard, and equally as glad that she hadn't let go yet, Angel slowly lowered himself down on the couch next to her and gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Well, just think. My mom said that she wouldn't have to re-bandage your wounds for another couple of days and by that time they should be pretty well healed." He knew that it was a lame attempt at reassurance but there wasn't much else to say. Sighing sarcastically, Buffy just rolled her eyes.

"Lucky me. However will I pass the time until then?"

Laughing lightly, Angel just got up and took her hand, pulling her gently to her feet.

"Come on. We can swing by the kitchen and pick you up some ice-cream before we go back and join the guys," he suggested, thinking that after all that she definitely deserved some sort of a reward. Her expression lighting up immediately she grinned.

"I could certainly do with some ice-cream around now." Her shyness around Angel had completely dissipated in light of close to twenty minutes of clinging to him helplessly as she whimpered from the pain of her re-bandaging experience. He had been really sweet and, despite the pain, she found that she had thoroughly enjoyed the short amount of alone-time they had gotten to spend together.

"Hey, mom!" called Angel over is shoulder, as he and Buffy made their way out the door. "We're going back to join the guys, we'll see ya later!"

"Okay, I'll see you later. Sorry about the bandages Buffy."

"No problem," she chuckled nervously. "Thanks for re-doing them for me."

With that they left and made their way back down the hallway, in search of the kitchen and ice-cream. It didn't take them too long to get there and the trip was passed in silence once again, but this time it was a comfortable silence and neither one of them felt the need to speak. Once inside the kitchen they only found two other people there, two seven year old girls who were sitting at one of the tables and giggling uncontrollably. Upon spotting the duo, both girls looked up and smiled.

"Hey Angel!" piped up the girl on the left with short brown hair, giving a small wave.

"Hey, Christina," replied Angel. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Just talking," supplied the girl on the right, and with that they burst into giggles again and quickly got up and rushed from the room, clutching their hands over their mouths to stifle the noise. Exchanging a look, the teenagers just shrugged.

"Huh," said Buffy. "That was weird."

"Yeah," agreed Angel, making his way to the freezer he quickly opened it and extracted a container of ice-cream, tossing it to Buffy. She caught it easily and smiled as he took out two more ad then moved over to a drawer to grab some spoons.

"My guess is that the entire gang is gonna want some too," he said, and then moved back over to her. "So, shall we?"

"Of course." And with that, they left the kitchen again and headed back towards the recreation room.

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_Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing this story, you guys are great!_


	8. Planning

_Author's Note:_

_Okay, so here's the deal. I have decided to come up with my own little definition of werewolves for the purpose of this story. Instead of just turning into a wolf on the night of the full moon, I'm going to make it so that they can switch into wolf-form whenever they want, but normally their going to be in their human forms. Basically they'll only switch to fight or if they want to travel fast or something. However, the full-moon is still going to have special significance. The day before, the day of, and the day after the full-moon are going to be a time when all wolfs dedicate their nights to running about in wolf form and the day sleeping, sort of like a tribute to the moon goddess (hang in there with me!). So basically every month all the packs stop what they are doing and 'celebrate' the full-moon by being in wolf-form during the night for three days straight. I really hope that this isn't too confusing, but it's really hard to explain. Just let me know if you need any more clarification or have any suggestions.  
_

8.

The ice-cream had been a huge success, all of it disappearing in about ten minutes. The girls, claiming that since Buffy had been the one to have to endure all of that pain, they should get two cartons of it to share while the boys got the other one. This had ended with everyone looking on as Spike and Faith wrestled, which rapidly escalated into a full-out make out session. Buffy guessed that this was a normal activity for the two of them because no one else seemed bothered by it in the least, they just turned back to the tv and continued to watch the new show playing.

About an hour after that Faith untangled her tongue from Spike's and languidly stretched as he curled his arms around her waist.

"So, what are our plans for this full-moon?" she asked casually, addressing everyone present.

Sometimes the entire pack did something together on the full-moon, but more often then not the teenagers were left to their own scheming. They usually went on a short trip for those three days, not venturing too far away but far enough to make them feel that they were away from home. In honor of the moon goddess they would spend their nights gallivanting around, running or exploring and just basically asserting their image as a strong pack and representing their leader. If Giles was not amongst them then Angel would be treated as the alpha-male because of his status as the son of the leader. Soon Angel actually would take his place as leader of the Raiselk pack, but the amount of power he had even now was large. During the day-light hours of those three days, in respect of the disappearance of the moon, all werewolves would sleep, resting just as the goddess did.

Faith's question immediately drew the attention of the entire pack and as Xander turned off the tv all eight of them turned to face her and Spike, excited with the thought of the full-moon.

"Well," began Angel, looking thoughtful, "I was thinking that maybe this month we could head up to that mountain pass, the one that's just about five leagues from here."

"Is that the one with the waterfall?" asked Fred.

"Oh, yeah, and there's that river that flows through it, right?" volunteered Willow. "That spot is so beautiful, we should go there."

"Yeah," said Oz, a simple reply. Although Buffy hadn't been around him for long, she noticed that he usually spoke in one word sentences.

"What would we have to bring up there?" asked Gunn, seeing as how no one seemed to have any complaints about the area.

"Oh, just the usual. Bedrolls, some food, maybe some matches for a fire in case it gets cold," replied Angel.

"Oh, and don't forget the pillows!" piped up Cordelia from her position sitting with her back against the couch. "Last time we went out you guys forgot to bring pillows and I had to sleep with my head on the ground!" she accused, sounding completely scandalized about the whole ordeal. "I had to go for three whole days with dirt in my hair!"

All of the boys looked as if they could care less, but Fred and Willow leaned over to pat their friend on the back in understanding, it **had** been uncomfortable.

"We aren't partying with the others this month then?" asked Xander, nonchalantly.

"Nah, I heard my parents talking about wanting to spread out this time so we can cover more ground and mark our territory more thoroughly," supplied Faith.

Angel looked pleased at this. He was hoping that they would run into Parker and Riley and then he would be able to show them exactly what happend to those who messed with his girl. Wait, _his girl_? Where had that come from?

Their conversation was ended due to the arrival of a young boy.

"Um, hey guys," he greeted them a little nervously. The older boys were his idols and whenever he was around them he seemed to always become extremely self-conscious. "Giles asked me to come and tell you that we are going to be having a pack dinner tonight, so just come down to the dinning hall in about forty-five minutes, okay?"

"Got, it," responded Spike.

"Yeah, thanks for telling us Stephen," agreed Angel politely. As the boy left, Angel turned back to the group. "Well, I guess we should probably finish up the details later, I'm gonna head back to my room to change." After a short pause, he added, "Buffy, come with me."

"What?" asked Buffy, surprised by the request. She had remained silent throughout the entire exchange of plans, feeling very out of place and more than a little uncomfortable, and was startled with her sudden inclusion.

"I'll take you to my sister's room so we can find you some different clothes to wear. I mean, not that I mind you wearing mine or anything, I just thought that maybe you wanted to change and take a shower or something, your bandages are waterproof, and you and Faith look to be about the same size."

"Why can't I just take her to my…" began Faith, only to be cut off by Willow's elbow in her side. Shooting a meaningful look at Faith, Willow shook her head slightly and then turned back to Angel.

"Sounds like a plan Angel," she said, and then turned to Buffy. "You cool with that?"

"Um, yeah, I guess," replied Buffy. "B-but I really don't want to inconvenience you. I can just find my way back to my own room and…"

"No way," declared Angel. "It's no problem for me, trust me. And afterwards we can just head down to dinner."

"Oh, I can't go to dinner!" exclaimed Buffy. "It's just for your pack, and I would be intruding."

"No you wouldn't Buffy," assured Fred. "You should be there."

"Anyways, the entire pack dinner thing is most likely to discuss you, ducks. Wouldn't want to miss out on that," agreed Spike, winking at her.

"Umm," began Buffy, still uncertain.

"Come on," said Angel, grinning and grabbing her hand and helping her off the couch where she had been sitting in between Willow and Fred. He guided her to the doorthen opened it and allowed her to go before him. Turning back to grab his jacket, he noticed similar looks on all of his friends faces. 

"What?" he asked, uncertain if he really wanted to know what was going through their minds.

"Nothin' Peaches," answered Spike. "Have fun now."

"Shut-up, Spike," Angel retorted, exiting the room amidst loud laughter.

"He's helpless," declared Faith, receiving nods.

"Oh, but their so cute together," exclaimed Fred, smiling dreamily.

"I give them two weeks, tops," laughed Gunn.

* * *

Meanwhile, Angel led Buffy once again through the halls until they eventually stopped in front of a door. Opening it quickly Angel lead Buffy inside and she gasped at the sight. The room was beautiful and large, with a bed on each side and various pieces of furniture spread throughout. 

"This is your sister's room?" asked Buffy, finding her voice once more.

"Yeah, she and Cordelia share it. Willow's and Fred's is just down the hall a ways." Moving over to a pair of doors against the opposite wall, Angel swung them open and looked intently through the various garments which were hanging up. Apparently making his choice, he extracted a loose fitting pair of jeans and a top.

"Will these work?" he asked, holding the clothes up for her inspection. "I think that they'll be loose enough to not cause you any unnecessary pain."

"Sure," replied Buffy, still in awe of the room.

"I'm guessing that your room doesn't look anything like this?" he smiled at the look on her face.

"No way," agreed Buffy, not really paying all that much attention to him, which would explain why she didn't catch him coming silently up behind her.

"Come on," he whispered from right behind her, his breath tickling her ear and making her shiver. She turned slowly and looked up into his eyes. His gaze was strong and piercing, his dark brown orbs seeming to swell and grow darker. Buffy's blood quickened in her veins as her gaze became fixed on his lips, so close to her own. She wanted so badly to just lean up and taste them with her own. She had never kissed someone before and her feelings at the moment were extremely confusing while at the same time they strangely felt right.

Angel was mesmerized by the look in her eyes. He was no stranger to women, but never before had he met someone even remotely similar to Buffy. He wanted so badly to kiss her, to claim her sweet lips as his own, but he knew that he was moving too fast. He could no longer deny that he had feelings for her, but he would take his time and court her the proper way. Turning away, he moved to the door again, not catching the disappointed look on Buffy's face.

"You can use the bathroom in my room, and I'll use Spike's," he said, trying to slow his rapidly beating pulse. He once again led her down the halls, making lots of twists and turns. When he came to a solid black door he stopped and opened it up, allowing Buffy to enter before him.

His room was even more enormous then his sister's had been. Decorated in darker colors and just screaming masculinity, it was definitely a sight to behold. There was a bookshelf along the far wall and a beautifully carved mahogany desk was sitting in a corner off to the side, covered in various papers and numerous other items. Angel felt pride shoot through him as he watched Buffy as she took in the appearance of his room. It was like his private sanctuary and he was glad to see the approval she obviously had for it. Walking over to his bed, he placed the clothes he was carrying on top of it and then beckoned her over to a short stone passage-way that connected his room to his bathing chambers.

"My shower's right through here," he said and grinned as he heard her gasp upon entering. The best part of living in the caves was the underground lakes and hot springs. His so called 'bathroom' was more like a large room, with a big pool in the middle and then some smaller sized pools surrounding it of various sizes. Buffy just stood there, completely at a loss.

"One of the perks of living here," supplied Angel, grinning. She turned back towards him and the look of utter amazement on her face was priceless.

"This is your **shower**?" she asked in total disbelief.

"No," he admitted. "My shower's over there," he indicated a smaller sort of cubicle over by the wall.

"Does everyone have this cool of a bathroom?" she asked.

"Well, yeah, everyone here does. Although, most people have to share, I'm just special." Sensing the teasing manner of his voice, Buffy just swatted him playfully on the arm.

"Well, aren't you lucky."

"Anyways," continued Angel. "You can use that shower, you should find everything that you need in there, but if not just let me know. If you need to find me I'm just gonna be down the hall a bit. Spike's room is the one with the dark red door. Why don't you meet me out in the there in about twenty minutes and then we can head to the dinning hall."

"Okay," agreed Buffy, still in shock.

Turning around, Angel left her alone and then proceed to Spike's room where he took a quick shower and changed into the clothes that he had grabbed before he left. He just tried to keep his mind occupied, attempting in vain to not think about Buffy's wet, naked body in his shower at that very moment. He looked up from the book he had been reading when Spike walked in, whistling some sort of weird tune. Upon seeing Angel in his room, Spike just smirked and walked over to him.

"'ello Peaches, didn't expect to find you 'ere. I 'ad imagined that you'd be over helping Buffy take a shower," he smirked.

"Ha, ha, right," replied Angel sarcastically, standing up. "You ready to head down to dinner?" he asked, hoping to change subjects as quickly as possible.

"Sure, just a sec'," he agreed, heading over to his closet and exchanging his current shirt for a new one. "Where is the little bint?"

"She's in my room, but I said that I'd meet her out in the hall right about now. Come on." The two of them left and immediately spotted Buffy emerging from Angel's room.

"You look lovely, ducks," said Spike, looking her up and down and then walked over to her quickly before Angel could do anything and, taking her arm, led her away.

Trying to bite down the sudden flare of jealousy that had sprung up upon seeing Spike with Buffy, Angel just forced his body to follow behind them. Resisting the urge to growl at his friend, he followed slowly, remaining silent the entire way to the dinning hall.

* * *

_The whole bathroom thing is just something that popped into my mind. I think that it would be sooooo cool to have, like, an entire swimming pool in my bathroom. Ah, who knows, someday when I am rich and famous... Yeah right!_

_Please Review! _


	9. Welcome to the Pack

_Jess: Thanks for the review! I'm still working out the details on the full-moon trip but hopefully it will be interesting. I guess we'll just have to wait and see._

_Laura: I don't know how many parts that I plan on doing yet. Basically my plan is to continue writing until I've gotten the entire story out, but I have no clue how much that will be. Sorry._

* * *

9.

With every step she took, Buffy became more and more nervous. They were almost to the dinning hall and she didn't know what to expect. Earlier, Spike had mentioned that the entire 'pack dinner' thing was probably to talk about her, and that definitely wasn't on her list of fun ways to spend an evening, especially when there was a totally hot guy that she could spend time with instead. She could have sworn that Angel was going to kiss her earlier, but then he just pulled away. She was hurt and certainly more than a little disappointed. Was it something that she did? Although she hadn't known the guy more than a day, there was just something about him that drew her, and wouldn't let her go. Maybe she would talk to Willow about it later…

Her thoughts were cut short as they reached the dinning hall. Giles and Jenny were waiting outside, talking to a few other adults, but when they saw the three teenagers approaching they excused themselves and move over to intercept them before they could enter the hall. The angry glare on Angel's face was not lost on Jenny and she grinned to see her son being so jealous over this girl.

"Hey Buffy, how are your injuries feeling," asked Jenny, hoping that the girl was faring better than she had been earlier that afternoon.

"Fine, thanks," she replied, getting more and more anxious by the second.

"Well, we were hoping that we could borrow you for a moment Buffy," interjected Giles, nervously cleaning his glasses. "Dinner isn't going to start for a few minutes yet and there are some things that we need to discuss with you."

"O-okay," agreed Buffy in a whisper, looking down at her feet. She was so glad that no one had asked her any questions yet, but she knew that it wouldn't last long. They were probably really curious as to what she was doing there, alone and injured. Well, she had explained about Parker and Riley, but that didn't explain where her pack was or why she wasn't trying to get back to them. On the other hand though, she desperately needed help and these people seemed really nice, not to mention understanding.

Moving forward, Angel grasped her hand lightly and gave it a small squeeze, showing his support. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was extremely uncomfortable, and it broke his heart to see her small body trembling in fear as it was now. However, he could only watch helplessly as she was led away by his parents and he was left standing next to Spike.

* * *

Jenny and Giles led Buffy down the hall a short ways to a room that was right off the dinning hall, and opening the door they allowed her to enter before them. The room was fairly small, but comfortable none the less, with a few plush chairs and a little coffee table in the middle. Taking a seat across from the pack leader and his mate, Buffy nervously folded her hands in her lap and looked up at them anxiously.

"Its okay, Buffy, we're not here to interrogate you or anything, just relax," reassured Jenny, feeling bad for putting the girl in such a state. Smiling meekly, Buffy just continued to stare at them and waited for them to begin.

"Well," began Giles, cleaning his glasses once again, "I'm just going to cut straight to the chase. Are you planning on returning to your pack, or contacting them so that they may come and fetch you?"

Gulping, the only thing that Buffy could do was shake her head slowly. This had been what she was dreading. A talk about her pack.

"We don't mean to push you, dear," said Jenny gently, "but we need to know what happened so that we know what the best thing is to do next."

"It-it's really h-hard for m-me to ta-talk about right n-now," she managed to stutter out, tears springing to her eyes as memories plagued her.

"We wouldn't be asking you if it wasn't of the utmost importance," said Giles, "but as the situation is, we do need to ask." After about a minute of silence, Buffy spoke at last.

"The-there was, it-it happened so fast, I tried to-to stop it, save them, but I-I couldn't, it was t-too late." Unable to hold the stares of the two adults, Buffy turned her face down to her lap as silent tears began to roll down her cheeks. Getting up, Jenny moved across the room to sit next to her, rubbing her back gently. So, then, it was as they had feared.

"Was it another pack?" she asked gently. Seeing her nod, Jenny felt even more sorry for the girl. It would a terrible experience for any person to witness those that she loved, her family, to be attacked and killed. Amazing that she would be a survivor, unless, perhaps there were others.

"Did anyone else survive?" asked Giles, thinking along the same lines as his mate.

"N-no," whispered Buffy. "I-I was meant to be-become a prisoner, but I escaped and ran a-away." Seeing that she was about to break-down, both Giles and Jenny decided that they had enough information for now and anything else could wait for another time, or until Buffy was comfortable enough to tell them.

"Alright, its okay, you don't have to tell us anymore, Buffy," declared Jenny as more tears rolled down the girl's face. "We're sorry to cause you to relive this, but we needed to know your situation so that we could help you out." Coming to a decision, she exchanged a glance with her mate and then pressed on.

"I'm assuming that you have no where to go now? You don't have any other family or friends in other packs?"

"No," replied Buffy uncertainly, not exactly sure where this conversation was going.

"Well, then, and of course we'd have to speak to the entire pack about it, but I would greatly like it for you to become a member of our pack. We don't know much about you, only what you have told us, but you seem like a wonderful young woman and I know especially that my children and their friends would enjoy having you around permanently."

"Wh-what!" She had been expecting a lot of things, but this wasn't one of them. They actually wanted her to stay? She thought that they wanted her to leave and find another place to go.

"I know that it would be strange for you and everything but…" said Jenny, trying to explain, but she was cut off before she could finish.

"No, it's not that," said Buffy rapidly. "It's just that I kinda thought that you were going to ask me to leave."

"Oh, of course not, Buffy," replied Jenny, looking stricken. "We would never just turn you out. Besides, we have space for you and it would be no strain on our part. In fact, I just know that Faith, Willow, Fred and Cordelia would love to have an even advantage with the boys for a change."

"Of course, you do realize this is all hypothetical?" interjected Giles. "We still have to run it by the entire pack at dinner tonight, to make sure that they have no objections."

"Although I'm sure that they wouldn't," reassured Jenny. "This wouldn't be the first time that we have taken on new members to our pack." At this point both Jenny and Giles stopped and simply looked at Buffy to see her reaction to the entire matter.

"Thank you, your offer means a lot to me," said Buffy, giving them a small smile. It wasn't like she had any other options and the idea truly did appeal to her. She had only been staying there a day but already she had gotten to know Willow especially, and Willow's friends too, and she would love to be able to remain here and hang out with them. "I would truly love to become a member of your pack, that is, if everyone is okay with it and all," she added hurriedly.

"Good. Anyways, I think that we've covered everything that we needed to, so what do you say to going back and joining everyone for some food?" asked Jenny, getting up and moving back over to her mate's side.

Now that she thought about it, Buffy realized just how hungry she was. After not having eaten for a few days, a girl could certainly work up an appetite. So, without another word, she joined Giles and Jenny and walked back to the dinning hall in silence.

* * *

Upon entering the doors, Buffy instantly became nervous once again, seeing so many people that she didn't know. The Raiselk pack was about the same size as her pack had been, but it looked like so many more people when it was all unfamiliar faces staring back at you. The dinning hall was a fairly large room and most of the space was taken up by the large tables in the center. There were two long, rectangular shaped tables that spanned the length of the room, with seats on either side, and at the very far side of the room was a great coat of arms symbolizing their pack.

Not everyone had chosen a seat yet, some were still up and about talking, but Buffy spotted Willow and the gang all sitting down together so she decided to join them, relieved at having found them at all. Upon seeing their pack leader enter, everyone else seemed to decide that it was a good time to take their seats so they all migrated off to an empty spot and soon everyone was seated. The meal had already been brought out and was waiting on the tables, but nobody made a move to eat until their pack leader told them that it was alright.

Standing up in the middle of the room, Giles turned and addressed his entire pack.

"Well, I think that this is everyone here. So, why don't we eat first and then we can begin to discuss a few things. Enjoy!"

Buffy was sitting right in between Willow and Cordelia. It seemed that of the teenagers all of the girls had sat on one side with the boys right across from them. Angel was directly across from Buffy and next to him was Spike and Gunn. The room was already abuzz in friendly conversation, but the ten friends remained silently for a few moments as they all ate some of the delicious food. Angel was the first to speak up.

"So, Buffy, what did my parents want with you?" He could tell that she had been crying a bit and could only wonder why. He hoped it was nothing that his parents had done.

"Oh, they just wanted to talk to me about something," Buffy replied, unsure if she was allowed to say anything about what they had discussed.

"What about?" asked Willow, curious.

"It was nothing."

"So, B," said Faith, jumping into the conversation. "Angel told me that he let you use his bathroom and that you were totally amazed."

"Oh yeah," said Buffy, smiling with relief that she had changed the topic. "I was totally amazed. You guys are so lucky to have such awesome bathrooms."

"Yep," sighed Xander, a dreamy look on his face. "We are living the life."

"Did you actually going swimming in the pools?" asked Cordelia.

"No, I just took a quick shower and then left. However, I am curious as to what all the different pools are for."

"They're different temperatures," volunteered Fred. "The big pool in the water is the cooler water and the smaller ones around the outside have hot water."

"Like tons of different hot tubs!" exclaimed Cordelia, looking excited.

Their conversation continued on for a while, everyone enjoying their meal and just talking about unimportant things. Eventually, however, the meal finished up and Giles got up once again so he could speak to the pack.

"First of all," he began, "are there any issues that any of you would like to address?" It was protocol for him to ask this any time there was a mass group meal, because it was a perfect time for everybody to talk together. Seeing that nobody had any questions, he continued.

"Okay then, well the main reason why we had this pack meal is to discuss the guest who has been staying with us for about two days." As he was saying this he pointed to Buffy and waved her over with his hand. Knowing that she would have to go up in front of everyone, Buffy just took a deep breathe and then got up from her chair and made her way slowly up to where Giles was standing. When she had finally reached him and had turned around to face the hall, he continued on.

"Most of you have probably seen her around, maybe talked to her a bit, but anyways, her name is Buffy. Now, due to the situation that she has found herself in," upon hearing this, Buffy looked down at the floor, trying to hold in her tears, "she is without a pack and has no where to go. We realize that none of us have ever met her before but we were hoping that all of you would be willing to support my mate's and mine decision to invite her to become a member of our pack."

Murmuring could be heard throughout the hall as everyone began talking all at once. Angel, on the other hand, was completely in shock and hadn't uttered a single word. Buffy become a member of their pack? As in she would be living there and he would be able to see her everyday? He couldn't believe it. Looking around at all of his friends he heard them talking quietly and to his relief they all agreed that it would be soooo cool.

"So," said Giles, ending the noisy chatter, "if anyone objects to this please stand up and make yourself know." When nobody stood up Buffy gave a small smile and Giles looked extremely pleased. "Great, I guess that settles it then. I thank you being for being so cooperative, and if no one else has anything else to say, then I think I can officially declare this dinner to be over."

At this, everyone got up and some people began to file out of the room while others remained behind to talk some more. Buffy escaped from the front of the room as quickly as she could and headed back to where her friends were still waiting for her.

"So, Buff, welcome to pack!" grinned Xander.

"This is sooo cool, Buffy!" squealed Willow excitedly. She had been worried about when her blond friend would be leaving, but now that she was part of the pack there was nothing to fret about.

Buffy gave them all a sincere smile, but inside she was very conflicted. It was so amazing that she was allowed to become part of the pack, but on the other hand the only reason it was even happening was because her entire pack was gone, for good. She tried stifling the yawn that was overtaking her senses, but her efforts were useless.

"Tired, Buffy?" asked Fred kindly.

"A little," she replied, smiling sheepishly.

"You should probably get your rest, it will help your body in the healing process," said Angel, standing up. "Though, since you are going to be staying with us, we should definitely find you a better room."

"Oh, I know!" exclaimed Willow. "She can share me and Fred's room. You know how we've always had that extra bed in there that we just use to set stuff on?"

"Yeah!" agreed Fred. "We have plenty of extra room, ours is bigger than most so it would be no problem for you to move in too."

"Umm, well, if that's okay with you guys, sure," replied Buffy, thrilled at the thought.

"That's a good idea," said Faith.

"Yeah," agreed Oz. Looking at the clock over on the far wall, Willow stood up too.

"It's getting kinda late, it's already 8:50, so why don't we head down there now and we can clear off the space for you and then you can head to bed?" she suggested.

Buffy just nodded and then she, Willow and Fred all left after saying goodbye to the others.

"Alright, bro, 'fess up," demanded Faith as soon as the trio had disappeared from sight.

"What?" asked Angel, looking genuinely confused.

"Oh, come on, Peaches!" exclaimed Spike. "You were only ogling blondie there for, like, the entire dinner!"

"Gotta agree with Spike, man," said Gunn nodding his head.

"You like her, don't even try to deny it!" said Faith smiling knowingly.

"You two would make such a perfect couple," agreed Cordelia.

"Come on guys, I've only known her, for like, a day," pleaded Angel, desperately hoping to escape from the conversation.

"So!" asked everyone unanimously.

"And so what if I do like her?" replied Angel, slightly irritated.

"I knew it!" screamed Faith delightedly as her brother's cheeks turned red and he quickly left the hall amidst roars of laughter coming from the other teenagers.

* * *

_Just so you all know, I am not done with my explanations on Buffy's past, so if you are still confused, it's okay._

_Sorry that it took me longer to update than usual guys. I am taking on a third language and it is really difficult and time consuming, so it will probably take me a lot longer to update than usual. SORRY!_


	10. Swimming

_Just a note, I now realize that now that I have gotten into this story I really haven't thought out the logistics of this AU world. Therefore, as you have probably noticed, most things contradict each other and make no sense, such as the whole electricity in a cave thing. I'm just going to say that although there are no humans there are going to be some human-like things and so you're just going to have to pretend like they are just there and turn a blind-eye every time something doesn't make sense._

_Also, I thought that I'd take this opportunity to explain a bit more about the werewolf society. So, we have the pack leader and his mate and family at the top of the food chain, and then everyone else is going to be at a basically equal status. All the adults have jobs to do in the pack, such as cooking, sewing, cleaning, etc., and no job is worse than another. And I just decided to throw that school thing in because I wanted to. Last thing, I swear! All clothes are going to be home-made (no stores) but just imagine them looking like regular, 21st century clothes. _

_A/N: I'm just going by my own rules of how to play Marco Polo, so if there are different versions, sorry!_

10.

The next two weeks passed by pretty quickly and Buffy was having no trouble fitting in to the pack. Everybody was extremely nice and accepting, and she found that she loved hanging out with the gang of teenagers and did almost everything with them. Her time had mostly been preoccupied with meeting new people and exploring her new home, but she found she had plenty of free time to just relax and do nothing. She was still constantly thinking about her pack, but luckily her sadness was starting to slowly fade as she adjusted to her new life.

Willow and Fred had moved around some of their stuff in their room so that Buffy could fit in, and fortunately there was tons of extra space, they really did have a large room. The extra bed that they had in there was given to Buffy and some clothes were quickly made for her, for which she was extremely grateful, her old ones were in tatters. She was settling in great and everyone thought of her as nothing other than a regular member of the pack. She was currently lounging in her room with Willow, Fred and Cordelia, all of whom were reading various science text-books.

Giles had insisted that Buffy join the rest of the young pack members in completing weekly school assignments and this week it was on the Carbon cycle. Although she had done a bit of work with her old pack, she was never good at it and Buffy found herself getting frustrated extremely often.

"Willow," she sighed, slamming her book shut and turning her head to look at the red-head from her position lying on her bed, "do you get any of this?" She had quickly discovered her friend's talent for academics and didn't hesitate in seeking out help. Willow just laughed.

"Yeah, did you need help?"

"Maybe," Buffy pouted, sticking out her bottom lip. She had become incredibly close friends with them in the past weeks and was perfectly comfortable now. However, before Willow could respond they were interrupted by a knock on the door, and in walked Xander and Oz.

"Hello, ladies," said Xander smoothly, plopping himself down on a vacant chair, making himself comfortable. "Ah, doing some science work I see," he noted with mock disgust upon spying the text books.

"What did you guys want?" asked Coredlia, quickly throwing her textbook away in favor of a more interesting activity.

"We were bored," replied Oz nonchalantly. "What are you guys up to?"

"Nothing important," answered Buffy, sitting up and tossing her textbook away, mimicking Cordelia's earlier actions. "Have any ideas?"

"Well," began Xander, "we were all thinking about heading down to Angel's rooms and going swimming over there."

"Ooooh, fun!" agreed Willow. "Just let us grab our suits and we'll be right down."

"Cool," said Oz, giving her a broad smile, which made her blush. Buffy smiled at seeing the obvious attraction between the two. Three days ago she had finally gotten Willow to admit to her feelings and she couldn't wait for those two to get together, they just had to. Then she had a sudden thought.

"Wait, I don't have a suit," she said, pouting a little again.

"You could probably borrow one of Faith's," said Fred, standing up and stretching a bit and moving towards her drawers.

"Yeah, I suppose that would work. Do you guys know where she is so that I can ask her?" Buffy asked the boys.

"Last I saw her she was making out with Spike, but I bet she is heading back to her room to grab her suit too," volunteered Xander.

"Okay, I guess I'll just head down there then. I'll meet you guys at Angel's room." She smiled at them all and then got up and left.

The second she left, Willow immediately became excited and then gestured for everyone to come closer so that they could all hear her.

"Alright, what's the plan, guys?" she asked them all.

"For what?" asked Xander, not having a clue as to what they were talking about.

"To get Angel and Buffy together of course!" exclaimed Fred, just as excited as Willow was.

"Yeah, like come on!" agreed Cordelia. "They've only been, like, totally obsessed with each other for two weeks now! Can't you see the way they look at each other, and talk about each other, and, remember, Angel admitted that he liked her."

"They do seem pretty in to each other," said Oz, nodding his head.

"So what are we going to do?" pressed Willow. "We should totally do something so that they get together."

"Why don't we just let nature take its course?" asked Xander, seeming fairly disinterested.

"Because," exclaimed Willow, "this is Angel we are talking about. Plus, Buffy is just as stubborn."

"Good point," he agreed. "Still, I think we should just leave them be."

"Well, can we at least make helpful hints?" pleaded Willow, pouting slightly. Oz just glanced over and smiled at her.

"Fine, we'll settle for helpful hints," decided Cordelia, looking back and forth between Willow and Xander. "But, if nothing happens soon, we'll interfere, agreed?"

Upon seeing everyone's nods of agreement, everyone went their separate ways and went about gathering swimsuits and towels in preparation to head down to Angel's room.

* * *

Walking down the hallways, Buffy quietly hummed a made-up tune to herself. Luckily, it hadn't taken her long to learn how to get around the hallways of the cave, and although there were still lots of places that she had never gone, she knew how to get to all the important ones. The two weeks she had been staying there had been enough time for her injuries to mostly heal up. Angel had been very strict about her going to see Jenny everyday for a 'check-up', which she found to be completely adorable, just for the record. She was saved from her inner musings when she arrived outside of Faith and Cordelia's room. Knocking, she waited until she heard a muffled 'Enter' before heading inside.

"Hey, B, what's up?" asked Faith when she spotted Buffy entering her room. Even though the two girls were quite different personality wise, they hadn't found any problems in bonding and had become quite close.

"Hey, Faith," Buffy smiled. "Actually, I was hoping that I could ask you a favor?"

"Sure, what you need?" she moved over from her closet and sat down on her bed instead.

"Well, Xander mentioned that everyone was going to head down to Angel's room to go swimming, and the thing is, I don't exactly have a suit." At this point she looked over purposefully at Faith.

"Okay, okay, B, don't get all desperate on me," she said sarcastically, rolling her eyes playfully. "I got plenty of suits for you to borrow. Hmm, let's see, which one?" She got up again and made her way to her drawers, opening up the top one and then went about searching through it. She glanced back over at Buffy and smirked evilly. "Perfect."

"What," asked Buffy curiously.

"Oh, nothing, just found you the perfect suit to wear," she declared, holding up a fairly modest, dark red two-piece. It would keep enough skin covered for Buffy's liking and she knew for a fact that her brother's favorite color was dark red. Like she said, perfect suit.

"Cool," said Buffy, looking it over approvingly. "Mind if I use your bathroom to change?"

"Nah, that's cool." While Buffy was changing Faith continued searching through her remaining suits in an attempt to find one for herself, and was still doing so when Cordelia entered the room and joined her. A few minutes later Buffy emerged once again, this time dressed for the pool.

"Can't decide?" she asked chuckling when she saw that Faith was still searching through her drawers, Cordelia having settled on an emerald green bikini.

"Well, I have narrowed it down to two," she held up her two final choices.

"Go with the purple one, Spike will totally be all over you. Then again, he's never really needed the excuse before," suggested Buffy, to which Cordelia nodded agreed completely.

"True," said Faith chuckling, shrugging out of her shirt and pants. She wasn't exactly the modest type.

"So, did you decide if you're ready yet?" asked Buffy quietly once they were left alone when Cordelia retreated into the bathroom to change. Faith knew that she was referring to the conversation that they had had two days ago.

"I think so," she grinned. They had been talking about how close she and Spike were, and whether or not they were going to become mates. Still smiling, Faith walked over to a basket by her closet and picked out three towels, tossing one to Buffy and keeping the other two. She didn't say anymore as Cordelia joined them once again, and the three of them headed out to Angel's room, deciding to go and join their friends.

* * *

Ten minutes later the entire gang was gathered in Angel's bathroom. Buffy, Faith and Cordelia were the last ones to arrive as they were detained in the hallway for a few minutes while they spoke to Faith's aunt and her two younger cousins. They walked over to an open space against the far wall and set down they towels and slipped out of their shoes and the shirts that they had just thrown on. Everyone else was already in the water, just swimming around and getting used to the temperature.

Angel had been talking with Gunn, but when he heard the three girls enter the room he turned to greet them, but immediately lost all ability of speech upon seeing Buffy. She had just taken off her shirt, exposing her shapely form to his gaze. Her bandages had been taken off four days ago and there were only small marks left as a reminder, though they would soon fade and did nothing to mar her beauty anyways. Just then she looked up and caught his gaze, giving him a brilliant smile. They had rapidly become very good friends, although each harbored more then friendly feelings towards the other but were too nervous to say anything. Shaking his head, Angel returned the smile with one of his own and then made his way to the edge and got up and out of the water.

"Borrowing one of Faith's suits?" he asked Buffy as Faith moved past him to go and join the others.

"Yeah," she shrugged. "I don't have one as of yet and since we're the same size and everything…"

"Looks nice," he said simply, smirking as he watched her cheeks turn a slight red.

"Th-thanks."

"Come on." He walked with her back to the pool and immediately slipped into the cool waters. Meanwhile, Buffy just stood at the edge taking in the sight of his gorgeous body. When he had first gotten out of the water the clear liquid had been streaming down his chest and she couldn't help but think how she would give anything to be a water droplet at that very moment. Turning back around, he gave her an expecting look.

"You gonna actually come in the water," he asked teasingly.

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm just, uh, never mind," she blushed again and hoped that Angel hadn't noticed her checking him out. She lowered her body until she sat at the edge of the pool and then slowly stuck her legs in, testing the water. Then, she eased her body in until she was finally standing. Angel just smiled and then headed over to where all their friends were gathered, discussing what they should do.

"We could play chicken?" suggested Xander.

"No way!" exclaimed Cordelia. "Besides, I **always** loose, so not fun."

"How about Marco Polo?" volunteered Fred, shrugging.

"Yeah," agreed Faith, decisively. "Any objections?" When everyone only nodded she seemed satisfied.

"So, whose going to be it," asked Gunn, eyeing the people around him, sizing up the competition.

"Not me!" shouted Buffy, Willow, Fred and Cordelia all at once, quickly stepping back from the group.

"For 'eaven's sake, I'll be 'it' first," sighed Spike in mock exasperation.

"Thanks, honey," said Faith sweetly, moving forward and giving him a quick kiss before moving away again.

As Spike was standing in the middle of the pool, everyone else scattered as far away from him as possible. Counting down from ten with his eyes closed, soon Spike was moving aimlessly around, shouting out the occasional 'Marco' and waiting to hear the responding nine 'Polo's. It wasn't long until he caught Fred and the two of them switched places. Then afterwards Fred caught Xander who in turn caught Gunn. Everyone seemed to be having a great time, laughing and splashing around. Buffy loved hanging out in the pool with everyone but found that her gaze was constantly on Angel, watching him as he moved sleekly through the water. She couldn't help but sigh at the sight of his muscles as they flexed while he swam hard to escape from the clutches of the designated 'it'.

"Hey," whispered Willow to Buffy. Even though Gunn was on the other side of the pool and currently going after Faith, it was best to keep as quiet as possible.

"Hey," she replied, smiling. "Think he'll catch her?" she nodded over to Gunn and Faith with her head.

"Nah, she'll slip away, look he's already going after Cordelia now."

"Marco!" rang out, and, obediently, everyone shouted "Polo" back. At this point Willow slipped under the water and moved away while Buffy did the same, heading in the opposite direction. She resurfaced a ways away and laughed silently to herself to see Oz and Xander distracting Gunn by splashing water at him. She was in a deeper part of the pool and couldn't touch the bottom so she was left to treading water as silently as she could. She gasped quietly as a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist, lifting her up slightly. Looking back she spotted Angel, who, being taller than her, was standing easily in the water. Pulling her back against his chest, he whispered into her ear.

"Hey. Just thought you might need some help." Buffy shivered from the feel of his hot breath against the back of her neck. Angel had been watching Buffy throughout the entire game, and seeing her by herself in a deeper part of the pool he decided to use it as the perfect excuse to be near her. He then shifted his arms and maneuvered her behind him and around to his back. Seeing his intentions, Buffy wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck, pressing her body lightly against him.

"Curse you, tall people," she muttered teasingly, causing Angel to chuckle.

They remained in silence for a while, just watching Gunn and shouting out 'Polo' whenever the occasion called for it. Angel placed his hands cautiously on Buffy's legs, hoisting her more securely onto his back. Having a scantily clad Buffy pressed so intimately against him was wreaking havoc on his senses. He could feel her breath against his neck and her blond hair brushing against his shoulders and arms. Glancing down he could see her small hands grasping at his shoulders and her toned legs wrapped around his lower body. They were far away from all of the action and had no reason to move. Unconsciously rubbing his thumbs in circular motions against Buffy's upper thighs, he just stood, basking in all the feelings that were currently coursing through his body, which were only enhanced as Buffy leaned forward and laid her cheek on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

"Warn me if Gunn is coming near here, kay?" she asked quietly, not bothering to open her eyes.

"Sure," responded Angel. "When you get dumped into the water, that means he's near," he whispered teasingly.

"Ha, ha, very funny mister," replied Buffy, snuggling even closer into his back.

Unbeknownst to the two of them, from the other side of the pool they were being observed by Spike and Willow.

"Ahh, those two are so cute together," sighed Willow, smiling at the sight of her two friends.

"Knew Peaches wouldn't be able to stay away from the chit," muttered Spike. "And I hear you lot were saying they were both too stubborn."

"Hey, it doesn't hurt to be cautious," she retorted, looking around to make sure that Gunn was still preoccupied chasing after Faith. "Don't they look happy together?"

"Yeah, yeah, but just wait. It's not like their together or anythin' yet."

"So, they will."

"I'd 'ope so. 'Bout time Peaches found himself a mate."

Their conversation came to a sudden end due to the loud shouting coming from Gunn and Faith.

"You so didn't catch me, I didn't feel anything!"

"I did so, and besides, I've been 'it' for, like, forever!"

"So you admit it, you just want to get out of being 'it'!"

"Alright you two," said Xander, in mock cheerfulness. "I think that we've had about enough of this little fun fest. You guys want to hit a hot tub?"

"Sure!" answered Cordelia, excited at the prospect.

"Sounds good to me," agreed Angel. He had made his way over to the group when he heard them shouting, Buffy still firmly attached to his back, though with her eyes open now. Faith raised an eyebrow at him but said nothing and he just chose to ignore her.

"Okay, so which one is it gonna be?" asked Xander, speaking up again. Looking around, everyone contemplated their choices, everyone, that is, except for Buffy. She didn't know the differences, and at the moment she could really care less.

"How 'bout that really hot one over in the corner?" suggested Faith.

"No, not the hottest!" exclaimed Willow, then looked embarrassed. "It makes my skin turn all red," she admitted sheepishly.

"Come on guys, it really isn't that hard of a decision," declared Gunn when no one else spoke up. "We'll go into that one." Pointing to a medium-sized pool off to his left, he walked over to the edge of the pool and hoisted himself out, making his way over. Shrugging, all the girls got up and followed him. Hopping down off of Angel's back, Buffy followed behind Willow and Fred, leaving Angel feeling disappointed and as he stared at her retreating form

"Man, you got bad," said Oz, grinning at Angel as Xander moved over to clap a hand on Angel's shoulder.

"Shut up," he muttered and then got out of the water to head towards the hot tub, leaving three laughing males behind him.

* * *

Sighing as her body sank into the warm water, Buffy closed her eyes and leaned back against the edge of the pool. With the loss of Angel's body heat, she had started to feel a bit cold and welcomed the heat that surrounded her. Opening her eyes again she found herself sitting in between Cordelia and Faith, who was at the moment was nosily making out with Spike, completely ignoring the rest of the hot tub's occupants.

"So, are we all set for the full-moon trip?" asked Fred once everyone was settled in the water.

"I think so," replied Angel from his seat between Willow and Gunn, looking thoughtful. The full-moon was only five days away and so preparations were being finalized in eager anticipation. "We are going to pack up all the food we'll need the day before, like always, and we have all our camping supplies packed, and other than that everyone just needs to make sure that they have a sleeping bag and," here he looked pointedly at Cordelia, "a pillow."

"Hey," she scoffed, offended.

"Did you check with Giles to make sure he was okay with us going to the mountain pass?" asked Willow, wanting to make sure that they had permission.

"Yeah, I checked with my parent's earlier," said Faith, breaking away from Spike's lips, much to his displeasure. "They're cool with it."

"So, Buffy, what did you use to do on the full-moon?" asked Xander, not noticing how the question caused her to instantly sadden and cast her eyes downwards. Angel however, was not oblivious.

"Xander," he warned, growling low in his throat, a clear indication that he was pissed. Xander just gulped.

"No, it's okay," said Buffy firmly, taking a breath and looking up. "I can talk about them, it's just a little, hard."

"You never mentioned what 'appened to them, Pet," encouraged Spike gently, being cautious to not over-step any bounds.

Buffy felt really bad. She knew that they had all been dying to ask her ever since she showed up, her unconscious form brought in by Angel late at night. She had been avoiding the subject and none of them had pressed her, but she knew that it was unfair to not tell them, they deserved to know.

"You don't have to tell us anything now, Buffy," said Willow, feeling sorry to see the blond being put in the spot light like that. "You can wait until you're good and ready to."

"Well, you guys can pretty much guess what happened," said Buffy nervously.

"We kind of assumed that they all, well, passed away," said Fred sadly, looking at Buffy to see if she had guessed right. Buffy just nodded and a single tear slipped from her eye, traveling down her cheek. Angel had to use every last ounce of his self-control to keep himself from leaning forward and taking her in his arms. He wanted nothing more than to hold her and reassure her that everything would be okay, that he would always be there for her. It broke his heart to see her so distraught over the fate of her old pack. However, he held himself in check.

"How'd it happen?" asked Spike.

"P-parker and Riley's pack, th-they were after m-m-me, b-but…" she just trailed off, not wanting to continue. The memories flooded back to her, the horror of seeing her family lying wide-eyed in a pool of their own blood, brutally murdered. At this point she stopped all of her thoughts from continuing, it was still too painful. Seeing her friend stutter, Willow moved over and embraced her. Regaining her voice once again, Buffy just gave a small smile and wiped away her tears.

"I'm sorry to be so emotional guys."

"Of course not, Buffy!" exclaimed Willow, giving a small smile of her own. "What are friend's for if not to listen to each other's problems?"

"Thanks," said Buffy, looking around at everyone as they nodded in agreement of Willow's words. "Anyways, Xander," she continued on. "When I was younger I would go with my parent's and every month we, along with the rest of our pack, would climb up a mountain so we could be closer to the moon."

"Sounds like fun," murmured Angel, still deep in thought about what Buffy had said about Parker and Riley being responsible for the killing of her pack.

"It was," she agreed, turning towards him. "And I'm sure that I'll have just as much fun this month."

The rather somber mood was suddenly broken as Xander farted and bubbles escaped from his swim trunks.

"Ew!" screeched all the girls, including Buffy, as they immediately leapt up from the water to escape from the 'contaminated' pool.

"Sorry!" shouted Xander, looking sheepish as he was smacked in the head by Gunn as the guys followed suit and left their current pool in favor of another one.

Everyone dispersed. Willow, Fred, Coredlia and Buffy all settled into one, while Oz, Gunn, Angel and Xander settled down into another. Spike and Faith opted for their own so as not to bother anyone with their 'activities'. Angel paid next to no attention to the other occupants of the hot tub he was in, choosing not to join in to their conversation. Instead his gaze was fixed upon Buffy, watching her intently as she smiled and laughed, and he was glad that she was having a good time. The ten teenagers remained this way for another twenty minutes until someone had the bright idea to go and grab some dinner, since it was getting late. Everyone reluctantly got up and gathered their stuff, heading off to their respective rooms in order to shower and change.

Angel remained as it was his bathroom, and once everyone had gone he sighed, placing his hands over his eyes, not able to get the image of Buffy's smiling face out of his head, and not really wanting to.

* * *

_Jess: Not sure if this is what you meant by having something 'big' happen in the bathrooms, but I thought it would be a nice place for them to all hang out. Let me know!_

_Thanks to all of you for reviewing, it's nice to see so much positive feedback, as well as helpful comments. Keep it up:)_


	11. Sleepover

_Here it is, chapter eleven. I wasn't to sure about this one but we'll see. Sorry about the wait. I guess the server went down or something, I couldn't get on to my account for a few days and then I had to deal with a family crisis, so it has definitely been a long week. Anyways, on to the story!_

* * *

11.

For Buffy, Faith, Willow, Cordelia and Fred, the next three days were spent in relative boredom. The other teenagers had left two days ago in order to visit with a neighboring pack. It was customary to hold meetings between packs around the time of the full-moon, to make sure that everyone was getting along, and usually the pack leader and some other males would represent their pack. Since Angel was fast approaching adulthood, he had started accompanying his father on these visits, and the other teenage boys went along as well.

Having nothing else to do, Faith suggested that all them girls have a sleep over that night in one of the recreation rooms. Her idea was met with mass enthusiasm and so everyone grabbed some blankets, pillows and the necessary food from the kitchen and then headed down to an available room. Once they had arrived they set about moving around the furniture in order to create enough space for everyone to lay down.

"Hey, can someone help me move this couch?" asked Willow desperately, panting with the exertion of attempting to move the heavy couch by herself.

"Oh, sorry!" exclaimed Buffy as she quickly rushed over to help her friend, followed by Faith. Within a few minutes the offending piece of furniture had been successfully pushed against the far wall and out of the way. Meanwhile, Fred and Cordelia set about looking through the assortment of movies they had, searching for one to watch first.

"Anyone mind what we watch?" asked Cordelia finally, after several minutes of fruitless searching.

"Nah," replied Buffy, while Willow and Faith simply shook their heads.

"Fine, we'll just go with this one then," declared Fred, selecting a random movie and popping it in the dvd player.

As the movie began to play everyone just settled down on the blankets that they had spread out and got comfortable. Faith plopped down in between Fred and Buffy, placing the bowl of popcorn that they had prepared right in her lap and proceeding to eat most of it. Nobody had bothered to get into their pajamas yet, so twenty minutes later they paused the movie so they could change. Not having the need to feel modest, they simply locked the door to the room they were in, having brought their clothes with them.

Buffy slipped into a pair of light blue silk pants and a black tank top. It was really comfortable to sleep in and she sighed as she settled back into the nest of blankets that she had created for herself earlier. She was soon joined by everyone else as they got ready to continue the movie. Soon Buffy and Willow began to braid Fred's hair and the movie was soon forgotten in favor of more interesting conversation.

"So, how far have you and Spike gotten?" Cordelia asked Faith, grinning at her.

"Well," began Faith, in mock thoughtfulness. "We kiss and everything."

"Uhhh, you'd have to be blind to not notice that," commented Willow, looking up from the section of Fred's hair that she was currently working on.

"And deaf," agreed Fred, making everyone giggle and Faith to simply shrug, not in the least embarrassed.

"What can I say? We love each other."

"Wait, you love him!" exclaimed Cordelia excitedly, looking shocked. This did succeed in making Faith blush.

"Well, I mean, yeah, I-I do," she admitted.

"And of course Spike is completely in love with you," said Buffy, grinning at her friend. "The way he can't take his eyes off of you, and the only thing he talks about is you, and I'm sure the only thing he thinks about…"

"Definitely," sighed Willow. "You two make a totally perfect couple."

"What about you and Oz?" asked Fred, craning her head around to try and get a glance at the red-head.

"M-me and Oz?" she squeaked, her face turning as red as her hair. She had only ever told Buffy about her crush on him and she knew that Buffy wouldn't tell anyone else.

"Come on, Willow," scoffed Faith.

"We can see the way you look at him," declared Cordelia, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't look at him in any, certain, way," she protested, not making eye contact with any of the other girls. "I look at him just the same as I do X-Xander, and Angel and Gunn, and, and G-Giles too."

"Yeah right, Wills," said Faith, rolling her eyes in exasperation. "Keep telling yourself that. I don't see why the two of you just don't get together."

"You'd make the perfect couple," agreed Buffy, giving her friend and encouraging smile.

Sighing, Willow finally gave in, deciding to trust her friends. "But, I mean, how do I know if he likes me back?"

"Well, you could always take the direct approach and just ask him." Seeing the girl's horrified look, Cordelia quickly changed her suggestion. "Then again, why don't you just ask Xander? I bet he could find out for you."

"Or, you could just hang around him a lot, do a little flirting, ya know," said Faith suggestively, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Fl-flirting? Oh, no. I don't flirt. N-not a good idea."

"Oh come on, it isn't that hard!" protested Cordelia, looking around her in attempt to gain support from the other girls.

"Well, seeing as how you and Faith are the only ones with any experience in that area…" replied Fred, trailing off.

"You have a boyfriend?" asked Buffy, surprised. She had thought that Cordelia was single.

"I did a few months ago," she replied. "It didn't work out though. He was from another clan and they were always moving around." She shrugged, seeming not to care about the whole thing.

"Good thing too," muttered Willow. "He was really boring."

"Yeah," agreed Faith. "Whenever he was over here to hang out all he ever did was sit in the library and read some stupid book."

"Hey, he wasn't that bad!" protested Cordelia, but upon seeing the incredulous looks on everyone else's faces she decided to give in. "Fine, he isn't the greatest example of my tastes in men. Still, I'm doing better than the rest of you, excluding Faith of course."

"Did you ever have a boyfriend, Buffy?" asked Fred as she got up and allowed Buffy to occupy her space so they could do her hair next.

"Nope, not a one," she replied, thinking back to all the boys she used to hang out with, although none of them had ever considered her anything more than just a friend.

"But of course, that's all about to change," said Faith, grinning evilly.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Buffy cautiously, not really sure that she wanted to know what was going on inside the brunette's mind.

"Oh, you know. Tall, gorgeous, name starts with an A, can't keep his eyes off of you," supplied Cordelia helpfully and everyone laughed, Buffy just blushed.

"I d-don't know what you are talking about," she denied lamely, receiving four pairs of eye-rolls in response.

"Can you say DENIAL?" giggled Fred.

"Just admit it B, you totally have a thing for my brother."

"Fine," she whispered reluctantly, not oblivious to all of the triumphant stares her admission caused.

"'Bout time you admitted it," said Cordelia. "So, are you going to tell him?"

"But what if he doesn't like me? Then I will look like a total fool, not to mention the embarrassment factor." Upon saying this Buffy pulled away from Fred and Willow, who had finished with her hair, and laid down on her stomach, facing her friends with a concerned expression on her face.

"Some how I don't think that that's a problem, Buffy," said Willow grinning.

"Why not?"

"Oh, come on! My brother is totally into you! You would have to blind to have not noticed the looks he's been giving you."

"Really?" asked Buffy hopefully, sitting up.

"Totally," continued Faith. "Just give him some time, keep up the flirting, and I bet you he'll have his tongue shoved down your throat in no time."

"I have not been flirting with him!" she protested indignantly, blushing at Faith's declaration, but seeing the looks on everyone's faces, she decided to give in a little. "Well maybe just a little bit."

"I bet he's a good kisser," declared Cordelia wistfully. "I mean, with a face like that, there's no way he could be bad."

"Bad kisser?" asked Buffy, looking suddenly incredibly nervous. "What if I'm a bad kisser? I've never kissed anyone before, I don't know to do, and I'd probably mess everything up."

"Wow, calm down, B. It's not that big of deal," Faith smiled upon seeing that the blonde looked as if she would hyperventilate at any second. But, seeing that she still wasn't convinced, she pressed on. "You could just let him take the lead, and don't worry. Angel is really nice, he would never judge you."

"Yeah, he has always been really nice to all of his other girlfriends," added Willow, smiling reassuringly.

"Other girlfriends?" asked Buffy, feeling a wave of jealousy mixed with anxiety wash over her.

"Oh, don't worry about them," declared Cordelia. "None of them were serious. They were only these girls from some of the neighboring packs. None of them lasted for more than a month or so."

"But what do I have to offer him?" she asked, still not convinced that Angel would want to have anything to do with her.

"Oh Buffy, don't think that way!" exclaimed Willow. She really wanted her two friends to get together, and she knew for a fact that Buffy's fears were misplaced, although she wasn't going to say anything for fear that Angel would be upset if she did.

"Listen, just be yourself around him and you'll see for yourself if he likes you or not," suggested Faith. Buffy just sighed and then smiled.

"Alright."

"Hey, you guys want to put in a different movie?" asked Fred. "I haven't been paying any attention to this one."

Seeing that everyone agreed, she slowly got up from her sleeping bag on the floor and made her way to the shelf that contained all of the videos.

"What do you guys want to watch? Comedy, drama, romance…"

* * *

An hour later all five girls were huddled together, wrapped up in blankets and pillows, eyes fixated on the television screen. After much discussion they had finally decided on a horror film that no one had seen before, and the darkness of the room combined with the subject matter of the movie was enough to make each one of them more than a little jumpy.

"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," muttered Willow, squeezing Buffy's hand tightly as she watched the man sneaking up on the unsuspecting girl. They all jumped and Fred shut her eyes as the girl screamed.

Unknown to the five of them, they were currently being watched by five pairs of eyes. Standing in the doorway was Angel, Spike, Xander, Oz and Gunn, grinning as they watched the females' terrified faces. Beckoning with his hand, Angel urged them to move forward silently into the room, sneaking up on the girls from behind. They tiptoed as quietly as they could, trying to make as little sound as possible so as not to alert their prey. The room was very dark, the only light that could be seen was from the television, and as the boys crept closer they silently circled around, each person coming up behind a girl.

Angel grinned. None of them had noticed the boys' presence yet. He looked up and caught the eyes of his friends and mouthed a countdown for them. "1…..2……3……"

They all pounced at the same time. Angel was behind Buffy and he grabbed her suddenly around the waist, pulling her back against him. Screams echoed throughout the room, mixing in with the uncontrollable laughter from the boys.

"That. Was. Not. Funny!" bit out Cordelia, once the lights had successfully been switched on again. She glared at Xander, who had been behind her, and folded her arms across her chest.

"I thought it was kind of funny," commented Oz nonchalantly, earning grinning nods from the rest of the guys. Smiling, Buffy just swatted Angel on the shoulder, secretly thrilled to feel his strong arms around her once again. Suddenly, Faith picked up a pillow and swung it at Xander's head, which soon escalated into a full-out pillow fight.

Angel tried to quickly scurry away, but before he could move Buffy had grabbed a pillow and began attacking him. At first he attempted to grab the pillow from her, but soon he was having to block the blows which were raining down upon his large frame. Deciding that he had played fair for long enough, he suddenly leaped at her, tackling her as gently as possible to the ground. Looming over her petite body, he began tickling her mercilessly, smirking as she squirmed and shrieked.

"An-Angel!" she exclaimed breathlessly, unable to control her laughter. Finally taking mercy on her he ceased his actions and stood up, helping her to her feet. She tried to keep a scowl on her face, but soon gave up the attempt in favor of a smile. He smiled back and then the pair turned their attention back to the other occupants of the room. Much to everyone's surprise, Cordelia had Xander pinned on the ground, her small body forcing his down.

"Truce, truce!" he yelled, desperate to get the fanatic female off of him. Cordelia, however, wasn't listening and just continued to yell at him, punctuating every other word by whacking the pillow against his head. Laughing, Gunn and Spike finally decided to take pity on their friend and they grabbed the girl by her shoulders, lifting her up and off of her victim, though not without loud protests. Everyone laughed at the display, but she just huffed and sat back against the couch, wrapping a blanket around her lower body.

"So," began Faith, when everyone had calmed down, "when did you guys get back?"

"Just a couple minutes ago," replied Angel, running a hand through his now messy hair. "We saw the light on and just couldn't resist."

"Did you have fun?" asked Willow, settling down next to Cordelia and pulling Fred and Buffy down to sit with her.

"Not really, red. Whole thing was rather boring if I do say so meself," replied Spike.

"Yeah," agreed Xander, a look of disgust upon his face. "A bunch of boring political mumbo-jumbo. I don't think I understood a single thing the entire time I was there."

Shaking his head at Xander, Angel moved over to the couch and sank back into the comfortable cushions. "Well, those of us who **were **paying attention actually did get something out of the endless meetings." Then he paused, looking thoughtful for a moment. "Actually, it was kind of interesting. The Urbinuth pack was hosting the meeting, and the impression I got was that they were trying to make an alliance between our pack and theirs."

"Yeah," agreed Gunn, nodding. "They were all acting nice, and always talking about unity and this coming togetherness. I wonder what they're up to."

"Urggg, the Urbinuth pack?" asked Cordelia. "Aren't they the ones that are always, like, picking on everyone else? Why did you guys meet with them anyways?"

"Well, you see, them being the mos' powerful pack in this region and all, we don't exactly have a choice, now do we pet?" declared Spike, looking bored with the entire conversation. "So, what were you guys watching?"

"Just some horror movie," supplied Buffy, shrugging her shoulders. "But why don't we watch something else, I'm definitely not in the mood anymore." All the boys grinned sheepishly.

"Mind if we join you ladies?" asked Xander, plopping himself down in front of those sitting on the ground, which only earned him a kick from a still shook-up Cordelia.

"Cool," said Willow. "But why don't we put in a comedy?"

"Sure," said Angel, groaning as he lifted himself off of the couch and moved over to the television. "Mind if I pick it?"

"Nah, go ahead," responded Faith, moving over to Spike and sitting down with him, wrapping her body around his. She then reached over and grabbed a blanket to put around the both of them as Spike grabbed a pillow to lean against. Soon the lights were out again and everyone was getting comfortable on the ground.

Angel, who was the last to come over, scowled at the seating arrangement, they had left no space for him. Not to be deterred, he contemplated his options, grinning upon reaching a solution. Strolling boldly over to group, he bent down in front of Buffy and lifted her up and away from her spot between Xander and Faith/Spike. Then he sat down in her now vacant spot, rearranging the pillows behind him. Buffy just stood in front of him, looking completely shocked. She just stood there, mouth hanging open, with her hands placed firmly on her hips. Looking expectantly up at her he waited, but when she made no move he simply reached his hand up and pulled her down and into his lap. After making sure she was comfortable he tucked the blanket in around them, slipping his arms around her waist, an increasingly familiar sensation.

"Happy now?" he whispered into her ear.

Turning around, Buffy prodded his chest gently, as one might fluff up a pillow. Giving a dramatic sigh, she turned back around. "I suppose you'll have to do."

Sighing contentedly, she leaned back fully into the strong body behind her. Maybe they were right, she thought. Maybe Angel did like her. She sure hoped so; she had never felt more safe in her life than when she was being held securely, wrapped up in his strong arms. She placed her hands on top of Angel's and began to subconsciously play with his fingers, causing him to chuckle softly to himself. He found his concentration wandering from the movie continuously, choosing instead to linger over the lightly illuminated features of his blond goddess. After a while her eyes slowly began to close and she laid her head back against Angel's chest, lulled to sleep by his steady heartbeat.

* * *

_Thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter ten, you guys are so great:_

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_-phoebe-109_


	12. Nightmares

_It is officially my firm belief that whoever came up with the idea of final examinations should be tortured mercilessly. I am so swamped with reviewing material for my finals, I wish I could just take them and be done with it. I started testing this week and I don't finish with them until May 28th! Evil teachers!_

_Anyways, as you might have guessed I'm going to be having a pretty busy schedule so it might take me longer to post another chapter, but we'll see. It's starting to look like this story is going to be pretty long, I still have a ways to go._

_A/N: I know my chapter titles suck, but oh well, my creativity is really not that great _

_So, hope you enjoy!_

* * *

12. 

The room was completely dark, and as Angel slowly came awake he looked around, searching for the thing that had woken him. It didn't take him long to find the culprit, for Buffy, still enclosed in his arms, was tossing and turning in her sleep. He didn't remember falling asleep, but that didn't surprise him. They had all been pretty tired, and glancing around, he noticed that everyone else was asleep too, sprawled out in various positions on the floor. Bringing his attention back to the blond in his arms, he smoothly shifted his body into a sitting position, trying not to disturb her. It was hard to see through the darkness but he could just make out her petite form tossing around, her face scrunched up into a frown and tears squeezing from beneath her eyelids. Immediately concerned, he tried to wake her up.

"Buffy, Buffy!" he whispered, trying to keep his voice low so that no one else would be disturbed. "Wake up, it's just a dream!"

His words didn't seem to have an affect on her, in fact, she seemed to become more and more upset, opening her mouth repeatedly in a silent cry. Angel gently grasped her shoulders and shook her slightly, but this just caused her to begin thrashing in earnest.

"No, no!" she cried out, pushing at him with her arms. "Mom! Dad! Noooooo!" Horrified, he finally snapped out of it and grasped her again, firmly this time, shaking her until she finally woke up. She looked up at him with tear-filled eyes, and the sadness that Angel saw in them was enough to have him reeling back in surprise. Quickly recovering, he embraced her in his strong arms again and pulled her tight against his chest, rocking her back and forth in a comforting manner.

"Hey, it's okay, shush, shush," he whispered as her tears continued to fall, wetting his shirt. "It was just a dream, it's okay, you're okay." He didn't know what to do, so he just held her until she calmed down a bit.

Buffy was terrified. She had been dreaming about the night her pack was killed and the images were still fresh in her mind. It wasn't the first time that she had dreamt about that night, but so far this had been the worst. Tonight she had actually seen her parents, calling out for her, covered in blood as Parker and Riley just looked on indifferently. As much as she hated the two of them, she was scared of them too. Deciding that it was too hard to think about right then, she just squeezed her eyes shut and clutched at Angel's chest, willing her body to stop shaking.

"I-I'm really s-sorry, A-angel," she finally managed to get out when she had calmed down enough, pushing away from him slightly and wiping her watery eyes. She then attempted a meek smile, but it soon faded away.

"What's the matter, Buffy?" he asked, concern shining through his eyes. He lifted his hand up to tuck a stray strand of hair behind her ear.

"It-it was nothing, ju-just a bad dream." She didn't know why, but she felt really nervous about talking about her nightmares with Angel. She didn't want him to think that she was weak. Knowing she was lying, Angel just gave her a disbelieving look, raising his eyebrows pointedly.

"I'm sorry that I woke you up, I think I'll just go and grab some water from the kitchen, I'm kind of thirsty." She tried to quickly scramble to her feet, seeing that Angel wasn't going to let the issue drop, and wanting to get away before he had the chance to question her further. However, her plan was foiled when he quickly reached up and grabbed her wrist, pulling her back down to him.

"Not so fast, Buffy. Please, tell me what's going on." The concern in his voice was mixed together with a strong determination. Unfortunately for him, their conversation was interrupted by the confused voice of Cordelia, sounding tired and completely out of it.

"What's going on?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Nothing," Angel replied, turning to look at her. "Buffy just had a bad dream and woke me up," he added as way of explanation.

"Whatever," she muttered, her head dropping back down onto her pillow, falling asleep again instantly. Rolling his eyes at the brunette, Angel turned his attention back to Buffy, only to see that see had already left the room. Sighing, he went through a short internal debate, wondering whether or not to follow her, and finally decided to give her some time so she could sort through what it was that was on her mind.

* * *

Buffy ran quickly through the hallways, reaching the kitchen in record time. She smiled slightly to herself, thinking about Cordelia's perfect timing and reminding herself to thank her later on. It wasn't that she didn't trust Angel, it was just… actually, she didn't know exactly what it was. She didn't want to keep dreaming about her pack's death, but she didn't want Angel to think she was just some scared little girl who needed to be comforted because she had a bad dream. She groped around in the dark, trying to find the light switch and eventually succeeding, flooding the room with a bright light that forced her to blink and shield her eyes until they had adjusted. 

"Glasses, glasses, glasses," she muttered to herself, looking at all of the cupboards and trying to decide which of them held the cups.

She hadn't yet had time to fully master the kitchen layout, so instead she went over and began to open random cupboards in search of something to drink water out of. She really was thirsty, it hadn't been a lie, just a great excuse to leave. She wondered if Angel had decided to follow her, straining her ears, but upon hearing no footsteps she decided that he was still in the rec-room. Then she thought back to how she had woken up in his arms and a blush spread across her previously pale face. It was definitely a feeling that she could get used to, but she then immediately forced that thought out of her mind. So not going there, Buffy, she admonished herself.

She eventually managed to find a glass and proceeded over to the sink to fill it up. Now with a glass of water she moved to the table and sat down, trying to sort through her muddled thoughts that just seemed to be floating around in a random order. Sleep evaded her for the rest of the night and as morning approached she sighed and got up, placing her empty glass back in the sink and then headed back to where her friends were still undoubtedly sleeping.

* * *

Meanwhile, an elderly woman was walking down the hallways, humming quietly to herself. She loved the morning hours, when everything was peaceful and the majority of the Raiselk pack had yet to wake up. She was one of the pack's cooks and loved her job, it made her feel good to take care of people. She had no family left and so instead spent all her time looking after others. She was just about to turn into the kitchen to begin breakfast when she spotted the new pack member leaving it. Smiling, she approached the girl, wondering what she was doing up so early. 

"Hello there, dear," she said warmly as Buffy visibly jumped, swirling around to face the voice. "Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you."

"Oh, that's okay," Buffy replied nervously. She had been startled but now just smiled back. "I just wasn't expecting anyone else to be up." She had seen this woman around before, she thought that Willow had mentioned something about her being one of the main cooks for the pack.

"Well now, I was going to say the same thing. What are you doing in the kitchen so early in the morning?"

"Well, actually, I had a kind of hard time sleeping so I decided to get some water, and I guess I just kind of got lost in my thoughts and forgot the time."

"You're the new pack member of course, aren't you?" the woman asked, beckoning for Buffy to follow her back into the kitchen while she spoke.

"Yeah, that would be me."

"And what might your name be? I'm afraid that I've forgotten it. Old age will do that to you, you know." Buffy smiled. There was just something about this woman that made her feel comfortable.

"My name's Buffy."

"Well now, Buffy, isn't that a pretty name? I once had a daughter-in-law that looked somewhat like you. Blond hair, and as small as could be! Real pretty thing to, yes, you definitely resemble each other."

"Thanks, umm, ma'm. You know, I just realized that I don't know your name."

"Oh, so sorry. I'm Cathryn, and you can call me by my name, don't worry. But now, lets discuss why it is that you're in here with me instead of asleep with all of your friends."

"Oh, well, I just sort of had a bad dream and needed some time to think." Buffy didn't know exactly what to say. Cathryn seemed really sweet, but she didn't know if she could trust a complete stranger with personal details about her life, or her former life in this case.

"It was about your family, wasn't it?"

"In-in a way, yeah," she admitted reluctantly, swallowing thickly in an attempt to hide her new found tears. Right now she really didn't want to talk about it, she just needed some time to sort through everything.

"Well, I found that the best way to ease the pain of losing your loved ones was to surround yourself with people that care about you," Cathryn declared as she moved around the kitchen, collecting various items as she went, not looking at Buffy. "I remember that I always used to hate it when people tried to get me to talk about them, to help me get over it, and always treating me like I was an invalid." At this point she paused and turned around fully to look at blond-haired girl. "Why don't you come over here and help me get some coffee started?"

Buffy gave a slight smile and then nodded, getting up and moving over to help.

"Now the way I see it, you've probably spent a good few of the last hours thinking about your family, so why don't we talk about something else, hmm?" Cathryn's attitude both surprised and pleased Buffy. This woman was definitely not what she was expecting from an elderly lady. She seemed to jump from one thought to the next, but in a way it made sense, and was oddly comforting when her thoughts were similarly jumbled.

They spent the next hour talking about nonsensical things, such as Buffy's friends, favorite dishes to cook, and which flowers smelled best first thing in the morning. Buffy learned that Cathryn's family had all either passed away or were living with a far-away pack. Her husband was deceased, as well as two of her children, a boy and girl who had both died in infancy. As time went by she felt a growing connection to the kind woman, she was like the grandmother figure that Buffy had never had the privilege to know. After the coffee had been made she then helped in the making of eggs, bacon, toast, and various platters of fruit. The two of them were eventually joined by the other two cooks of the pack and the four of them engaged in lively and fun-filled conversation.

"Well, I think I better be heading back to see what the gang's up to," declared Buffy at last, smiling warmly at the other three women.

"It was really nice talking with you Buffy," replied Cathryn brightly. "Come by again some time in the morning and we can talk some more."

"I'd like that, thanks," she agreed, and then with a slight wave she left, returning to sleepy friends who were just beginning to wake-up.

* * *

Angel slowly opened his eyes when he heard the door swing open and someone making their way through the piles of bodies that were strewn all over the place. When had he fallen asleep again? The last thing he remember was waiting up to see if Buffy was going to return, but apparently he hadn't lasted that long. 

"Buffy?" he muttered groggily, leaning up from the ground on his elbows and fixing her with an uneven stare.

"Hey, Angel," she replied light-heartedly as she settled on the ground next to Willow who had by now woken up as well.

"Jesus, how long have you been awake?" mumbled a grouchy Faith, who was also just waking up in her position in Spike's arms.

"Don't know, a while," she replied nonchalantly. Everyone who was up exchanged glances, confused at her chipper state.

With a groan, Spike stood up and stretched languidly, running a hand through his mussed hair.

" 'M lord, Blondie. What's got you in such a good mood this early in the morn?"

"Nothing, it's just been a good morning," she smiled, standing up as well and bouncing around.

"Ahhhh," groaned Xander, pulling a pillow over his head to shut out the noise. "It is illegal to be that happy this early in the morning."

"Come on, Harris! Get your ass out of bed," instructed Cordelia happily, throwing her pillow at him. "Do you guys realize that we leave tomorrow for the full-moon trip?" her voice was laced with excitement.

Soon everyone was up and moving about, talking animatedly about the upcoming trip or what would be for breakfast. Angel, watching Buffy carefully, moved over to where the blond was folding up a blanket and placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, you okay?" he questioned her, uncertain about her mood after she had woken up just a few hours before, terrified of whatever haunted her dreams. Looking away for a moment, Buffy sighed.

"Yeah, I am. Sorry for waking you up and everything, I just had a slightly disturbing dream about my family, and the night they, well, let's just say it wasn't a very good dream."

"Do you want to talk about it?" It pained him to know that she was being haunted by such ghastly remembrances.

"Thanks, but I'm okay now. Really," she added upon seeing his doubtful look. "I actually already talked to someone this morning and it really helped me out." Changing moods suddenly she pouted, sticking out her bottom lip as far as it would go, and held up a particularly large blanket.

"Help me fold it?" she pleaded, batting her eyelashes exaggeratedly.

"Anything for m'lady," Angel replied with a smirk, glad to assist. Five minutes later the entire gang had cleaned up reasonably well and each person was each heading off to their respective rooms, intent on changing and then heading to the kitchen to grab some breakfast.

* * *

"So, are we all set to head of tomorrow?" questioned Gunn as he lounged on a chair in Spike's room where he Angel and Spike had congregated much later in the afternoon. 

"I think so," replied Angel, looking at Gunn over his shoulder from where he was searching through a pile of books that Spike had carelessly piled on his desk. "The food's taken care of, and I talked to everyone and they seem to be packed and everything."

"Does Buffy know what she needs to bring?"

"Yeah, Willow and Fred helped her get everything that she'd need. Which reminds me," said Angel, becoming serious and turning around to face his two friends. "There might be some trouble. I heard that Parker and Riley are back in the area again, and word is their out looking for Buffy."

Spike grinned evilly. "Perfect. I hope they find us. Bloody wankers."

"Just don't tell Buffy about them. She's still shook up from when they attacked her last time, we're gonna deal with this on our own."

"Do you think they'll be following us?" asked Gunn.

"I count on in," Angel replied smirking. "They won't know what hit them." Suddenly his demeanor turned to one of barely suppressed fury. "What kind of bastards would go after a girl like that?"

"Sick ones?" volunteered Spike, looking disgusted.

"I mean, why would anyone do that to Buffy? She's so sweet and adorable and…"

"You got it bad Peaches," said Spike laughing openly at his friend's dreamy expression.

"Shut up, Spike. Need I mention a certain brunette sister of mine?"

"Hey, at least I 'ave the guts to express my feelings, unlike some people I know."

With a sigh, Gunn got up from his chair and made his way to the door. "As much fun as it would be to listen to the two of you bickering over your love lives, I should probably be leaving. Me mum wants me to meet her in the back gardens because she says we don't 'talk' enough." Shuddering in mock fear, he exited the room with a short wave of his hand, leaving the two to their bickering.

* * *

Knock! Knock! Knock! 

"Come in!" yelled Willow, sticking her head out of the closet where she was busily searching for a reasonable blanket to take out into the wilderness for the trip the next day. Frowning at her lack of success, she turned around to face the visitor.

"Hey, whatcha doin'?" asked Faith as she plopped herself down onto the nearest bed, laying back comfortably.

"Searching fruitlessly for a blanket to take with us tomorrow, you?"

"Oh, just bored out of my mind actually. But hey, I think that I saw some blankets over in the laundry room when I was down there."

"Great, thanks. Oh, have you seen Buffy lately? I wanted to make sure that she packed everything she would need for the trip, since she's never gone with us before and everything."

"Nah, haven't seen her. You should ask Cordelia the next time you see her."

"Cool. So, did you need anything or are you just stopping by to chat?"

"Actually, I need to talk to you about something." This immediately sparked Willow's interest and so she moved over to sit on her bed, next to the one that Faith was currently occupying. "You know how Buffy said that the two wolves who attacked her were named Parker and Riley?"

"Yeah," said Willow cautiously, not really seeing the brunette's point.

"Well, the rumor going around is that they're back in the area and looking to cause some trouble," she declared excitedly.

"What!" gasped the red-head, horrified at this new piece of news.

"Oh come on, this is great!" exclaimed Faith.

"How is this great? If they're around here again that means that Buffy is in trouble. They might try to hurt her again!"

"Calm down, will ya? You're missing the bigger picture here. If they come around looking for her, that means that the guys get to act all macho and protect her and stuff. Parker and Riley are gonna get the shit beat out of them if they even come within two hundred feet of her."

"I dunno, it still sounds really risky to me," she replied, still sounding uncertain and not at all sure that Buffy would be kept safe.

"You know that Angel would never let anything happen to her," reassured Faith, seeing that Willow was still feeling uneasy.

"Yeah, I guess," she finally agreed, albeit reluctantly. Then, her expression brightening considerably she got up from the bed. "What do you say we head down to the kitchen to grab some dinner? It's already 6:45."

"Yeah, sure.

* * *

Three hours later Buffy was still no where to be found. Most of the pack was heading to bed so as to get a good night's sleep before their trip, but the nine teenagers remained up. 

"When was the last time that somebody saw her?" asked an exasperated Angel, growing more concerned by the minute. He didn't like the fact that she had gone missing just when Parker and Riley had been spotted back in the area.

"Well, she ate lunch with us in our room," supplied Fred. "And that was around, like, 1:30 or so."

"I saw her walking through the hallways at around 3:00," declared Oz.

"Do you know where she was headed?" pleaded Angel frantically. Faith smiled at her brother's frayed emotions. If the situation wasn't so seemingly serious she would have laughed out right.

"I didn't see. Sorry."

Just then there was a soft knock on the door to Willow, Fred and Buffy's room, where the whole gang was congregated.

"Hey, guys," said Jenny when she entered the room. "You guys should really be heading to bed to now, it's getting late."

"Well, you see, Jenny, we have a slight problem," said Willow meekly, looking extremely nervous.

"Blondie's gone and disappeared and no one seems to know where she's gotten off to," supplied Spike at Jenny's confused look.

"Oh," she replied, suddenly beginning to laugh. "That reminds me. I was going to tell you guys that earlier when I was in the library I saw Buffy in there. She was fast asleep on one of the back couches, and I decided not to disturb her and to let her get her rest instead."

"I'll go get her," said Angel, sighing in relief that Buffy had not been kidnapped, or worse. He quickly left, followed by his mom.

"Bed, all of you," she commanded playfully just before she left, and soon everyone had said their good nights and Willow and Fred were left to wait for the return of their roommate.

* * *

Angel quietly entered the library, cautious to not make too much noise incase Buffy was still sleeping. Thinking about it, he realized that she must be really tired, since she had been up most of the time the night before. Searching around a bit, he spotted her petite form snuggled cozily into the plush cushions of a large red couch back by the far end. He smiled to see her eyes shut tight and a peaceful expression on her face, his breathe catching at her exquisite beauty. Shaking his head to clear his mind, he moved over beside her and shook her shoulder gently. 

"Buffy," he called softly, thinking about how it was just this morning that he had been trying to wake her up, that time in fright, this time in amusement and endearment. She just sighed and rolled over, facing away from him and curling up into an even tighter ball.

Standing up, Angel slipped an arm underneath her legs and the other under her back, lifting her effortlessly from her resting place. The entire way back to her room he simply stared at her, studying her every feature. He arrived at her door all too soon and was forced to set his bundle down. The gentle change in position was enough to wake her up, and so it was on unsteady legs that she regained her footing.

"A-angel?" she muttered, confused as to her whereabouts. "Where am I?"

"You fell asleep," he informed her, giving her the most charming smile that he could muster up. "You were in the library so I decided to not wake you up and just carry you back instead."

"Oh," she whispered, still looking confused. "What time is it?"

"Just about 10:00," he replied, lifting a hand to brush a strand of hair back from her face. "You had us all pretty worried. We had no idea where you had gotten off to."

"Oh, sorry," she said sheepishly. "I guess I was just really tired, I didn't get much sleep last night."

"It's okay, but you should probably head to bed now. We're all meeting in the front hall at 5:45 tomorrow morning so you're gonna have to get up pretty early." Groaning, she turned and opened her door.

"Ugghhh, don't remind me! Anyways, thanks, for carrying me, I mean."

"No problem. Oh, and Buffy?" he asked, just as she was about to disappear into her room.

"Yeah?"

"I'm really glad that you weren't hurt or anything." With that, he leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her cheek, just brushing her skin with his lips, then turned and retreated back down to hall. Not moving, Buffy just raised her hand to her cheek, not daring to believe that Angel had actually just kissed her. Smiling dreamily, she too retreated into her room, closing the door quietly so as not to disturb Willow or Fred, falling back asleep just as soon as her head hit the pillow and drifting off to a world of happy thoughts.

* * *

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_AugustMoonBeams_


	13. Night before the full moon

_Hey, sorry it has taken me so long to update. A combination of exams and writer's block has been attacking me relentlessly for weeks. Anyways, I'm back now with another chapter, although some of you will be disappointed to find that there will be no beating up of Riley and Parker in this chapter. Sorry about that, but when I actually got around to writing I found that there was too much that needed to happen before hand, so we'll have to save that for another chapter. _

_Enjoy! _

* * *

13. 

Gasping at the sudden light and loud noises, Buffy slowly raised her head off of her pillow, searching around groggily for the source of her disturbance. Seeing Willow and Fred moving about the room, throwing their few bags into a pile while getting dressed at the same time, she sighed and flung her head back down onto the bed. It was too early to be alive, she decided, and closed her eyes again contentedly, sinking back into the world of pleasant dreams.

"Oh no you don't," commanded Willow, yanking the blankets off of the blonde's body, and causing her to yelp and open her eyes once again, now scowling at her attacker. "Come on, get dressed. We have to be down in the front hall in twenty minutes and we still have to eat breakfast."

"Fine," muttered Buffy, forcing her tired body up and off of her warm, comfortable bed.

She looked around the room, trying to remember where she had put her bags the day before and where she had set out her clothes. Finally spotting them on the floor near the closet, she hurried over and quickly began stripping out of her pajamas, attempting to get dressed in record time. She slipped into a pair of warm, tan, hiking pants and pulled a form-fitting blue t-shirt over her head. The outfit was completed with a light black jacket, and she then moved into the bathroom to deal with her hair. She pulled it back into a neat ponytail and then brushed her teeth. After five minutes of hurried grooming, she turned around to see Willow and Fred dressed and waiting for her by the door, bags in hands. Picking up her own luggage, she joined them and the three girls headed down the hall and towards the kitchen.

"Why in the world are we leaving sooooo early in the morning?" questioned Buffy grumpily as they walked.

"Angel wants to make sure that we reach the valley by noon so that we can set up and get ready for tonight," replied Fred. "Don't worry, you'll wake up as soon as you get some coffee in you."

Still muttering to herself, Buffy entered the kitchen behind the two girls and plopped down at the table. All the other teenagers were already there, along with various other pack members, all trying to squeeze in a bit of food before they had to leave. Yawning, she reached for a banana and started peeling it slowly.

"Hey, Buffster, how'd ya sleep?" asked Xander, smiling at her.

Groaning, she just glared at him, much to everyone's amusement.

"Not an early riser, B?" smirked Faith, taking in the girl's grumpy demeanor.

"It is way too early in the morning to be alive," she complained, taking a large bite and chewing on it slowly.

"Oh, but it's going to be so much fun, Buffy!" exclaimed Willow, still chipper despite the early hour.

"Speaking of fun, we should really be heading out now guys," declared Angel, taking one last drink of his coffee and then slamming the cup back down on the table. With a sigh, he pushed his chair back and then moved over to his parents who were currently chatting with some of the other adults.

"Hey, mom, I think we're going to head out, okay?" he asked her.

"Oh, yeah, that's fine. But, Angel," she turned and gave him her full attention, fixing him with a serious look, "promise me you'll be careful, alright? I'm not oblivious to all the rumors going around here, you know."

"Mom," complained Angel, rolling his eyes in exasperation.

"Hey, I'm just warning you to be careful." Lifting up a hand, she teasingly ruffled his hair, just laughing as he scowled at her. "Have fun!" she yelled at his retreating back as he left her to rejoin her friends.

"We all good, bro?" asked Faith when he returned.

"Yeah, we can go now, if everyone is done eating," he replied, quickly scanning his friends to see if any of them were still eating, but it appeared as though everyone had finished gulping down their meals.

"How long is it going to take to get all the way up there?" asked Willow as she stood, gathering her up her backpack as she spoke.

"Don't know red, prob'ly a few hours or so," said Spike as he too stood up, looking to Angel for confirmation.

"Yeah, sounds about right. If it's just about 6:30 now, and we walk for four hours or so, then take a short break, and keep going for another hour, then we should make it there by noon," said Angel.

"Oh, come on!" exclaimed Cordelia, rolling her eyes at the tall brunette youth. "There is no way that you are making me hike for five hours, I'll die. Why the rush?"

"Yeah, Angel, why the hurry?" agreed Faith, still lounging in her chair at the table. "We don't need six hours to set up camp."

Angel didn't want to admit the real reason why he was in such a rush to make it up to the valley, and he was at a loss for a good enough excuse. His real reason was because of a certain blond girl who was, at the moment, sitting with her head down on the table, her eyes closed and clearly not paying any attention to anything that was going on. He was worried that they would run into Parker and Riley before they had reached the valley, and despite his eagerness to thoroughly teach them a lesson, hopefully one they'd never forget, he wanted to be in a secure location where he could be sure of the protection of the females.

"Well, I just think that it would be better if we got up there as soon as possible. We don't want to run into any unexpected 'problems'," replied Angel, looking pointedly at the other four guys, who were well aware of the situation by then.

"Oh yeah, because problems, would be problematic, and would cause lots of, problems, which we don't want," stuttered Xander, trying to support Angel, and failing miserably. Even Buffy raised her head up off the table, giving him a completely confused look, to which he simply responded by shrugging helplessly.

"Whatever," said Angel, also giving Xander a weird look. "Point is, we're leaving in ten minutes, and what I say goes."

Recognizing the commanding tone in his voice everyone instantly sprung into action, clearing away their dishes and grabbing their bags. Though they were all friends, Angel was the future leader of the pack, and he was owed a certain level of respect and loyalty. As everyone moved towards the front hall, saying goodbye to parents as they went, Spike grabbed a hold of Angel's arm before he could move past him.

"So, you worried about Riley and Parker makin' an appearance before we get to the valley?" he asked quietly, looking around to see if anyone would be able to overhear them.

"Yeah," he replied, also in a whisper, turning to face his friend. "I just want to make sure that the girls are out of the way."

"So are we going to go looking for them?" asked Gunn, coming up behind the two guys and joining in their conversation.

"I don't think we'll need to," replied Angel, beginning to turn and walk away. "I have a feeling that they'll come after us. So," looking back at his two friends, he fixed them with a serious stare. "We have to be sure to keep track of all of the girls at all times, make sure that they have an escort where ever they go. Also, stay on your guard and be prepared at all times." After stating this, he walked away quickly, joining pack up with the rest of the gang where they had congregated in the front entrance hall.

"Man, can you say 'obsessed'?" muttered Gunn to Spike, as the two of them followed slowly after Angel.

"Can you say in love?" smirked Spike, watching as his friend stared fixedly at a certain blond-haired girl who was, at the moment, arguing with Xander over some random thing. Exchanging knowing glances and laughing to themselves, the two of them made their way over to the group, preparing themselves for the long walk ahead of them.

* * *

"Oh god, make it stop!" screamed Cordelia, throwing herself down on the ground in a small clearing where the gang had decided to stop for a few minutes.

"Cordelia, Cordelia, Cordelia," said Xander condescendingly. "Having problems?"

"Leave her alone, Xander!" scolded Willow, panting from the exertion as she sat down next to her friend and pulled out her bottle of water. She was soon joined by Buffy and Fred, each groaning as they lowered their sore bodies down onto the grass.

Everyone set their backpacks down and Oz grabbed a bag full of nuts from his bag, grabbing a few and then passing it around. The gang had already been hiking for three hours and everyone was pretty tired. They had been walking at a steep upward incline over rocks and streams and it had definitely been time for a break.

"How much longer?" asked Buffy, yawning as she laid back on the ground, curling up into a comfortable ball and shutting her eyes. Smiling at her from his perch on a near-by rock, Angel had to resist the very strong urge to curl up on the ground with her and take her into his arms.

"We've only been hiking for a few hours," said Gunn, picking out a few nuts from the bag and popping them in his mouth.

"Does 'a few' translate into a thousand?" asked an exasperated Cordelia, taking a long drink of water. A few minutes were passed in silence as everyone relaxed and had some food and water.

Angel, sitting on the rock, looked around nervously. There had been no sign of either Parker or Riley, but he wasn't going to push his luck. They still had about two hours of hiking left and he wanted to get moving again.

"Come on guys, lets get going," he said at last after they had been resting for ten minutes. "We'll stop and take a longer break in an hour or so."

All the guys immediately got to their feet, Spike pulling Faith up with him and giving her a short kiss. Sitting up, Buffy blinked her eyes open lazily and put her water bottle back into her bag.

"Angel," she called to his passing form, putting on a pouting face when he turned around to look at her. "Help me up?"

Giving her a sexy half smile that never failed to make her weak in the knees, he leaned over and grasped her outstretched arm, pulling her to her feet. She smiled back at him and hoisted her bag up onto her shoulder, walking over to join Willow and Fred.

* * *

The next three hours passed rather uneventfully and the gang finally made it up to the mountain valley at around 12:45. The boys immediately set about making camp while the girls decided to forgo any and all forms of manual labor and opted instead to fix lunch.

Looking around, Buffy had to admit that it was a beautiful spot. Tonight was the night before the full-moon, and she could already feel the power and excitement inside of her, as her wolf half rejoiced. After helping make up a large batch of grilled-cheese she joined the rest of the girls where they sat on a bunch of rocks, watching as the guys continued setting up camp. From her position she had a great view of Angel's ass as he bent over, driving a stake into the ground.

"Likin' what ya see, B?" asked a smirking Faith. She had been asking the same question for the past two minutes, trying to find out if Buffy wanted any water, only to find her friend's attention to be completely consumed with watching her brother as he moved about.

Blushing, Buffy tore her eyes away from what had been a most pleasant sight, and instead turned to face four grinning girls.

"Hey, guys," she finally managed to stutter out lamely. Rolling their eyes good naturedly, they all got up and left Buffy sitting there, moving towards their makeshift campfire to distribute the grilled cheese among the guys.

* * *

"So, any sign of them?" asked Xander as he moved over to where Angel and Spike were conversing softly on the edge of their camp. The daylight was slowly fading and it would soon be night.

"Nothing yet," Angel replied, glancing at his approaching friend before turning back to Spike. "Are you sure that the entire area has been searched?"

"Bloody 'ell, Peaches, yes!" exclaimed Spike, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "Me and Gunn went and looked everywhere, there's nothin' unusual around."

"Hey, you guys ready to roll?" yelled Faith from her place by the campfire. "It's almost dark, what are you guys doing?"

Sighing in resignation, Angel ran his hands through his spiky brown locks.

"Alright, let's go," he muttered. "But I want everyone to be on full alert tonight."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," mumbled Spike, walking back to the fire, grumbling the entire way with Xander trailing behind him.

Just a few minutes before sunset everyone gathered a little ways from the fire, forming a group around Angel, their recognized leader. The excitement that had been building in Buffy for hours now was at its peak, and as the last rays of light disappeared behind the rugged mountain peaks she let go of the firm control she was holding over her body. She could feel her body changing, her hands and feet shrinking to strong paws and her legs becoming powerful back haunches. In a matter of seconds she had completely changed into her wolf-form.

Looking around at all of her friends, in their furrier versions, she raised her head up to the moon and opened her jaw wide, howling her contentment. She was soon joined by the rest of the pack, and for miles around you could hear their voices echoing of the mountain walls.

Turning towards the center of their group, Buffy's eyes fell upon a great black wolf, large, menacing and without a doubt powerful. His coat was sleek and thick and every hair was the same dark black color. _Angel_, she thought, mentally gushing at how regal he looked. However, she didn't have long to admire him before she joined in with the others as they submitted to their leader.

The ritual was nothing new to Buffy, she had done it many times before on the full-moon with her old pack, and she had no problem with showing her loyalty to Angel. She approached him slowly by sliding on her belly, inching her body closer. When she finally made it to his feet she made a low, whining noise in the back of her throat, touching her face to his paws, and then rolled over onto her back and turning her head to the side, offering him her neck, the weakest spot on any wolf. Angel growled deep in throat and bared his teeth threateningly. There was no anger in his actions, only dominance, and he quickly leaned his head down and bit her neck gently, not enough to hurt her at all, and growled again. Then, releasing her, he moved on the next pack member who approached him.

After everyone had faithfully given their loyalty to Angel it was time to move on. Everyone was full of energy and wanted to run, explore the mountainside and worship their goddess. Jumping up onto a nearby rock, Angel howled as loud as he could, soon joined by the rest of the gang. Then, jumping down again, he ran off into the woods, everyone trailing behind him.

Throughout the long hours of the night the pack ran all over the mountains, rejoicing in being a were-wolf. At one point they had passed by a stream and Angel had decided to stop for a bit a take a drink. After having his fill he spotted Buffy, lying in the grass near the water. He liked seeing her in her beautiful silver wolf-form like this, without the blood and matted fur. Just thinking about what those two bastards had done to her caused a growl to bubble up out of his throat. Hearing the growl, Buffy turned her head and looked into his eyes, confused as to what was bothering him. As he saw that she was now looking at him, he turned his gaze away, embarrassed that she had caught him staring.

They moved on soon after that and the rest of the night passed without incident. The five males stayed on the outside of the females when they ran, staying alert and watchful, looking for any signs that Parker and Riley were around. Ten minutes before dawn, the gang reached their campsite once again, giving one last good-bye howl to the moon before it could disappear in the lightening sky.

Everyone dispersed a bit as they changed into back into their human forms, hair receding and limbs contorting back into their original shapes. Buffy ended up near the edge of the forest and found herself lying on the ground when the transformation was complete. Sighing contentedly, she thought back to how much fun she had had. Curling up in a ball, she didn't bother to move. She was so tired from all of their gallivanting and she didn't have enough energy to return to the tents. Raising her head slightly, she saw that everyone else seemed to be pretty exhausted too, and Xander was already asleep where he had changed. Laying her head back down she closed her eyes and was two seconds away from sleep when a large hand wrapped itself brutally around her mouth.

She tried to scream but couldn't make a single noise, and before she knew it she was being drug back into the forest, her friends completely oblivious.

* * *

_Okay, so some things might be pretty confusing, but hey, I try. I only know a little bit about how wolfs interact with their alfa-male, so I kind of just descirbed it according to what I learned in 7th grade._

_Thank you to all of my great reviewers, you guys rock! _


	14. Rescue

_Hey guys, sorry I haven't updated in forever. I guess my summer is going to be much busier than I originally thought. Anyways, I **finally **have a new chapter written._

_Warning: This chapter is a bit more violent then the previous ones, and it deals with attempted rape. If any of this upsets you, please don't read, but I promise that it isnt too bad. _

_Enjoy! _

* * *

14. 

The bright afternoon sunlight filtered into the mountain valley, clearly illuminating the nine exhausted forms lying strewn about on the ground. They had been lying there for hours and hadn't moved a muscle, all of them too bone weary to even make it as far as their make-shift beds that had been assembled the day before. However, a combination of several hours of rest and the bright glare of the fading sun were enough to finally rouse Angel as he groggily opened his eyes.

Squinting as the harsh light assaulted his eyes, he slowly drug his body into a sitting position and ran a hand through his hair as he yawned tiredly. Thinking back to the events of last night he couldn't help but grin, then frown suddenly as he thought how vulnerable they all had been while sleeping. Cursing silently, he rose to his feet and looked around briefly until his gaze landed on Spike, who was sleeping on his back about twenty feet away.

Smirking, he moved over to their forgotten campsite and picked up a canister of water lying near a rock. Then, sneaking silently closer to Spike, he carefully unscrewed the cap and poised it over the sleeping boy's head. A slight twist of his wrist and the cold water was soaring through the area, coming to a stop as it crashed soundly down on the bleach-blonde's head, soaking him completely.

"Bloody 'ell?" he screeched, shooting straight up as he sputtered and gasped, looking around frantically for the source of his rude awakening. When his gaze finally landed on his laughing friend he glared icily at him, a scowl marring his features.

"Come on, get your ass moving, Spike."

"What's with the wake up call?" he grumbled, slowly dragging his tired body to his feet as he yawned loudly. He had been in the middle of a really nice dream involving a certain brunette girlfriend of his, so needless to say the interruption wasn't a welcome one. Stretching one arm over his head as he tried to work out the kinks that resulted from sleeping on the hard ground, he looked to his friend expectantly, hoping for a damn good answer.

"We forgot to put someone on guard this morning," he answered, looking away from the blonde and over to Gunn who was also near by.

"And yer point would be, Peaches?" he grumbled, still resentful due to the rude wake up call and too tired to process anything that was going on.

"Gunn, wake up, man," Angel urged as he prodded him with his foot, only stopping when he saw he friend begin to stir and open his eyes.

"What, no water?" muttered Spike sarcastically, still angry at his friend's antics.

"What's going on?" asked a sleepy Gunn, looking up at the two males that surrounded him and squinting into the bright sun.

"Peaches over hear's got his panties in a bunch is what's up," replied Spike as he stretched out his arms, ignoring Gunn's confused look.

"Listen, no one was put on look-out duty when we got back this morning. Lets get up and take a look around, make sure that everything is alright."

Groaning, Gunn got to his feet and imitated Spike's stretching as he glanced about at the other members of the pack still peacefully sleeping.

"Is everyone here?" he asked, turning to face Angel again.

"I don't know, go get Oz and Xander up, but be quiet about it, I don't want to wake the girls up."

"But it doesn't bloody bother you to get us up, now does it," muttered Spike under his breath as he followed behind Gunn as they headed off towards where Oz could just be seen, laying sprawled out on the ground near a bush.

Although he hadn't said anything out loud, Angel was concerned. There was just something telling him that all was not right, and add that with the fact that Parker and Riley were around someplace and there had been no one on guard… Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he looked around, trying to make sure that everyone was there and that all was as it should be.

* * *

Five minutes later found all of the males searching frantically around the valley. It had taken them two minutes to finally locate Xander, hidden behind some rocks, but once they had they turned towards finding the females of their pack. It hadn't been difficult to spot Fred or Willow, very obviously sleeping out in the open towards the middle of the open field, and Cordelia hadn't been much tougher, lying just off to the side. However, Buffy and Faith had yet to be found and the panic levels were steadily growing as the minutes ticked by. 

"God Damn It! this is all my fault," Angel exclaimed quietly, berating himself at failing in his promise to keep his pack safe. If he had just looked after them all like he was supposed to…

"Listen, beating yourself up isn't going to do us a bit of good," replied Spike as he watched his brunette friend slam his fist into a nearby tree. "Let's just wake up the girls and have them help look, then we'll all look again."

"There's no use, they're gone. I failed," retorted Angel, seemingly unable to process the reasonable words.

"Then we'll track them. You can't give up yet, we'll find them and then we'll show them what happens to people who mess with our pack, especially our young females," declared Gunn, satisfied to see the gleam that entered Angel's eyes at the suggestion.

Oz moved over to Fred and Willow, kneeling down next to them to wake them up.

"Hey," he whispered gently to them, "you gotta get up. We have a situation."

"Wha-wha-what?" asked a sleepy Willow as she yawned, not bothering to open her eyes.

"Just five more minutes," muttered Fred, turning over.

"Buffy and Faith are missing."

This got the pair's attention immediately. Shooting straight up, they looked at him with disbelieving eyes, taking in the scene in the small valley. Xander was kneeling near Cordelia, presumably trying to coax the brunette out of her beauty sleep, and Angel, Gunn and Spike were prowling about the edges of the valley, sniffing.

"What's going on?" asked Willow finally. "What do you mean they're gone?"

"We searched all over for them but we can't find them. Angel's worried because we all just fell asleep this morning, plus there's…"

"Parker and Riley," Willow exclaimed, her eyes widening with the realization as Fred and Oz both stared at her. "Faith told me that they were around again, looking for Buffy. Oh my god! We have to find her."

Leaping to her feet, she was about to take off towards where Angel was still sniffing out the area, but Oz grabbed her hand before she could get away.

"Wait, Angel wants everyone to search around the valley again, make sure we didn't overlook any place," he told her, rubbing his thumb along her hand reassuringly and giving her a small smile.

"Parker and Riley are in the area again?" asked a confused Fred, who had never been filled in.

"Yeah," Oz replied. "Angel has been having the guys keep an extra careful lookout, but I guess we all just forgot last night."

"Where should we check," asked Fred again, rising to her feet and joining Willow, a determined look set on her features.

"Try searching in the woods a bit and around the outskirts."

Nodding, the two girls moved away as Oz headed off in the opposite direction, intent on looking for anything that he might have missed before, but his search was brought to a sudden halt as Faith came strolling into their midst.

* * *

She had no idea where she was. That was the first thought that entered her mind as she groggily regained consciousness. Looking around she could tell that she was somewhere in the woods, but where she had no idea. Her head felt like it was going to explode and when she tried to sit up she found that she was bound to the tree behind her. Trying not to panic, she tried to think back to what had happened the night before. The last thing that she could remember was laying down to go to sleep, and then a hand had closed over her mouth. 

She was suddenly drawn out of her thoughts as she heard the rapid approach of footsteps and her worst nightmares stepped into her sight, smirking down at her. Trying to put up a brave front, she was taken completely by surprise when the hand shot out and struck her across the face, snapping her head to the side. The laughter that rang out chilled her to the bone, but she refused to show her weakness. She would get out of this, her new pack would come looking for her, she just knew it.

"Well, well, well, if the princess isn't awake," murmured Parker, reaching down and jerking her head so that he could look into her eyes. Looking up at him with defiance, Buffy drew back and spit into his face, earning herself another hard slap.

"Come on," said Riley, smirking down at her. "We need to get going. It's going to be dark in half and hour and her pack will be waking up."

Wiping the spit off of his face, Parker reached around her and undid the knots connecting her to the tree and then roughly pulled her to her feet, pushing her in front of him as they made their way deeper into the woods.

* * *

As Faith re-entered the valley where she had left the rest of her pack sleeping peacefully, she didn't even have time to be surprised at the scene that greeted her before she was swept up into Spike's arms. 

"Oof, Spike, what's going on?" she questioned, completely confused at the display, as he pulled away from her. Looking around she saw that everyone else seemed to be awake as well and they seemed to be looking for something.

"God, baby, where did you go? You had us so worried, we couldn't find you and…" As he spoke he ran his hands up and down her arms, so relieved that she was okay and not in the vicious hands of Parker and Riley.

"Oh, sorry," she gave a sheepish grin. "I had to go to the bathroom and I just stepped away into the woods and then I got side-tracked by this annoying bird…"

"Where's Buffy," Angel asked anxiously, cutting her off.

"Buffy? I don't know, isn't she here with you guys?" she replied, looking around in search of the blonde. "I haven't seen her since last night when we all got back here." Then, not seeing the newest member to their pack, she too became worried. "Wait, is she missing?"

"We've been looking for the both of you for the past fifteen minutes and we haven't seen anything to indicate where she might be," supplied Gunn helpfully as Angel just returned to his prowling, resuming his attempts to search the area.

"Oh my god, but Parker and Riley…" she trailed off as the realization hit her. She realized that although the boys had been extra protective the night before, this morning they had obviously been too tired to remember to keep guard, and add that with Buffy's disappearance and the situation didn't look good.

"Did anyone see her lay down anywhere?" asked Xander.

"I don't remember," said Cordelia, equally as worried about her friend and pack member.

"Alright," declared Angel, deciding to take command of the situation. "The sun will be down in about forty minutes. We have no idea how long Buffy has been missing, but we do know that where ever she is Parker and Riley are with her." At this, several growls could be heard from various people. It was unacceptable for anyone to mess with one of the Raiselk pack, they would have to pay. "We'll follow her scent, it shouldn't take us long to find her." Here he paused, looking at all of them so they could see the rage and power surging through his being. "Let's go."

* * *

Pain wracked her body as once again she stumbled and fell to the ground, tripping over a protruding tree branch. They had been walking for about an hour as far as she could tell, the woods around her growing steadily darker. The one time that she had tried to run off resulted in a hard kick to the stomach, so she wasn't all that eager to try it again. The sharp tug on the ropes binding her hands jerked her up once again, and turning her head around she glared at her captors. Parker's cold eyes stared back as she was shoved forward once again. 

"Are we almost there?" asked Riley, looking about him at the surrounding forest as he tried to figure out where exactly they were. He never did have a very good sense of direction.

"It's just around the bend," replied Parker, rolling his eyes. Why did he get stuck with such an imbecile?

True enough, two minutes later the trio was standing at the entrance of a rather large cave, tucked away in the side of a mountain. It was dark and didn't look at all welcoming, and it was with dread that Buffy was forced inside and promptly pushed roughly to ground against the far wall.

Looking around, she took in the jagged walls and high ceiling, as well as the dank smell that seemed to permeate the place. It was nothing at all like the caves of the Raiselk pack, which were smooth and furnished, giving off a warmth and hominess, instead of the death that this place stank of.

Wincing as Parker moved towards her again with another length of rope in his hands, she could only submit helplessly as he bound her ankles together and, smirking, pressed a hard kiss against her lips before moving away again. Her situation didn't look good and all she could do was pray that her pack found her in time before the dangerous duo decided to step up their onslaught of her.

* * *

They had been searching for close to two hours now and Angel was finally feeling confident that they were getting close to finding them. It was completely dark now and the entire pack had switched into their wolf forms, prowling around and trying to sniff out the path that Parker and Riley had taken. They had picked up their scent a little over an hour ago and had been faithfully following it, eager to reach Buffy so that a proper punishment could be extracted on her kidnappers. 

Angel growled low in his throat as once again the strong smell of Buffy's blood filled his senses, overpowering everything else. He was going to kill those bastards if it was the last thing he did. How dare they take her from him? She was his, his beautiful golden girl, and he wouldn't allow anyone to cause her harm. Using his nose to track the scent he reached a rock, and bending down could see the red streaks, traces of her suffering.

Roaring, he took off running, the rest of his pack behind him. The scent of her blood was strong and led him on a clear path, leading him nearer and nearer to his goal.

* * *

Struggling, Buffy twisted and turned, trying to slip the coarse rope off of her wrists, but her efforts were useless. Parker had tied them too tightly and there was nothing she could do but grit her teeth as her movements quickly rubbed her skin raw. Her entire body hurt but she knew that she would never stop trying to escape. She didn't know what they planned, but she had a pretty good idea and it was these thoughts that caused her to renew her struggles and she watched the two of them approach her once again, smiling with an evil glint in their eyes. 

"What's the matter, Princess? Not enjoying yourself?" mocked Riley as he knelt on the ground next to her and ran a single finger down the length of her arm, slowly dragging it across her abused skin.

"Please, let me go," she begged, looking at them with tear filled eyes. The only answer she received was the cruel laughter than could be heard echoing against the walls of the cave.

"Now, why would we do that?" whispered Parker, joining his cohort on the ground next to her. "We are going to have so much fun here, wouldn't want you to miss out on it."

Having said that, his hands lunged out and gripped the edge of her shirt, caressing the material for a few seconds before it was ripped off of her. Whimpering, Buffy tried to shy away from them but there was nowhere for her to go. Closing her eyes, she turned her head away as two sets of hands went about groping her upper body, squeezing and tugging at her, causing more hot tears to spill from her eyes and streak down her face and into the dirt.

Soon her bra was torn away as well and her breasts were completely exposed to the male's hungry gazes. Buffy couldn't believe that this was happening to her. She had grown up under the threat of these two, but they had never truly been successful in their attempts at capturing her, and all of the horrible images of her former pack's death came flooding back to her.

"Please," she tried again, begging them to stop. "Please, just let me go. Don't do this!"

Just then an angry growl erupted throughout the cave, and for the first time since she had been taken Buffy felt her hopes rise.

* * *

Angel growled as he burst into the cave and was greeted with one of the most horrible sights he could remember. Buffy, on the ground and bound, with Parker and Riley kneeling next to her as they groped at her bare chest. He could see numerous scratches and bruises on her body, she looked very battered and bloody, much like she first had when he had rescued her all those weeks ago. He was just glad that they had arrived in time. 

Knowing exactly what to do, Spike, Gunn, Xander and Oz all spread out next to their leader, growling and showing their teeth as well, showing that they were strong and prepared to fight to protect their friend. The girls all gathered off to the side, knowing to stay out of the fight as they waited for a chance to get to Buffy. Parker and Riley, for their part, seemed pretty pissed off as well. Standing and moving from their place next to Buffy, they immediately morphed into their wolf forms and prepared for the fight.

In all honesty, it didn't last long. Parker and Riley might have been well built and strong in their own rights, but they were no match for the males of the Raiselk pack and their fury, especially that of a certain jet black wolf, which they recalled having seen once before.

Giving an animalistic roar, Angel leapt forward and tumbled with Parker to the ground, rolling with him as he sunk his sharp teeth into the other boy's shoulder. He rejoiced at the taste of warm blood as it filled his mouth and the howl that Parker emitted. Behind him he could sense the others as they easily took care of Riley. Turning his attention back to the fight at hand, he ripped his fangs out and instead lashed out with his powerful front paws, leaving deep scrapes and causing Parker to crumble at his feet. His rage was all consuming, filling him up completely and driving him onwards. In a matter of seconds his teeth were once again imbedded in his enemy, this time in his throat, and a gurgling cry was the last sound that Parker ever made.

Standing up, he looked with cold eyes at the dead wolf laying at his feet. The motley brown coat was quickly soaking with blood, and Parker's eyes were rolled back into his head. It was obvious to anyone that his death had been a painful one, and smirking, Angel turned his attention to the other remaining kidnapper. Riley was being pinned down by Oz and Gunn, each on either side of him as they growled menacingly.

Deciding to let the other males finish him off, Angel simply turned his back, delighting in the yelps of pain that could be heard from the dying wolf. He had more important thing to attend to at the moment as he hurriedly ran over to where Buffy was laying.

At the very start of the fight the girls had all rushed over to their injured friend, surrounding her and giving her protection. Willow and Fred gently laid their bodies across her, covering her up, while the other two stood on either side. All four of them were growling deep in their throats, but when they saw Angel approaching they immediately leapt up and allowed him through.

Upon reaching her, Angel bent his head down, nuzzling her shoulder and giving a short wine. It hurt him to see her like this, but he took comfort in knowing that things could have been so much worse if he was only just a little later in coming. Deciding that in this form he was of little use to her, he quickly switched, returning to his human guise, and hurriedly removed his shirt to cover her. He could see the bruises marring her beautiful skin, the deep scratches and blood that seemed to cover her. Looking into her eyes he gently smoothed a hand over her hair, whispering soothing, nonsensical words into her ear, telling her that it would be okay, that he would make everything better.

Buffy, looking up into the deep chocolate eyes that gazed so caringly down at her, knew she was finally safe. Knowing that her guardian angel would protect and watch after her, she finally succumbed to sleep, drifting off into a world of unconsciousness. Looking around the cave, Angel first took in the two bodies laying haphazardly on the ground, then allowed his gaze to drift to where the other members of his pack were standing silently, all still in wolf form. Bending down, he lifted the small blond into his arms, mindful of her injuries and making sure that his shirt still covered her.

"Let's get back to camp. Spike," he turned to address his friend, "take Faith with you and run back as fast as you can. Prepare a bed for her and start boiling some water."

With a growl, Spike bowed his head slightly and as Faith joined him the two sped off into the night, their footsteps soon lost in the distance. Then, seeing that taken care of, Angel turned to address the rest of the pack.

"I want the rest of you to stick near me. I doubt that Parker and Riley had any more friends hanging about, but it never hurts to be sure. Let's go." And with that he turned and strode out of the cave, the small girl cradled in his strong arms, and a band of six wolves surrounding them.

* * *

Buffy stayed unconscious for most of the way back, only opening her eyes once or twice, and then only to immediately close them again after muttering a few words. Angel just gripped her tighter, determined to get back to the camp as soon as possible so that he could make sure that she was alright. Moaning, she turned her head into his chest, curling tighter against him and grabbing his arm tightly. 

"Hold on baby, just a few more minutes," he whispered to her, content as he saw the valley just up ahead of them.

Five minutes later he was entering the valley, the moon high in the sky and shining down on them, bathing the entire place in a surreal glow. Looking around, he quickly spotted Spike and Faith, both now in their human forms, as they moved about the camp, making up a bed and boiling the water, as he asked. He moved quickly towards where Faith was kneeling by the bed, adding extra blankets for comfort, and she saw Angel approach she quickly rose to her feet to help him lower Buffy gently to the ground.

"How bad is she, Angel?" she finally asked when the girl in question was safely tucked into the makeshift bed. Turning to his sister, Angel simply shrugged and turned back to the blond.

"I don't know yet. She has some pretty bad cuts and bruises, but I haven't had a chance to really check yet."

Leaning forward, he gently lifted the shirt from her stomach, running a tentative hand over the bruises he found. Turning away again, he stood up faced towards the rest of the pack, now all human, and gestured for Willow, Fred and Cordelia to come over.

"Can you guys patch her up? I don't think that any of the cuts are too bad, but I don't know."

"Of course we will, Angel," replied Willow, moving forward to kneel near her friend, wincing as she saw the blood. "We'll have her bandaged up in no time."

Faith, seeing her brother's reluctance to move away from the girl, got up and walked towards him.

"Come on, Angel. There's nothing more you can do here now. Let us deal with it, and as soon as we're done you can come back over."

Nodding, he slowly turned away and went to join the other males as they sat by the campfire. Water was being boiled over the flames, as well as a bunch of food which was being cooked. Seeing the food, Angel suddenly realized how very hungry he was, not having eaten for 24 hours. Sitting down with a sigh, he took the offered piece of bread from Xander and began to slowly eat it.

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Half an hour later the girls were finally done and told the guys that they could come over and see Buffy if they wanted, she had woken up and was hungry. A bowl of soup was quickly made up and taken over to her. She was lying down, now dressed in one of the guy's large t-shirts and a pair of loose sweatpants, her head cushioned on a large pillow. Willow was sitting next to her, talking to her quietly, but they stopped upon hearing the approach of the pack. 

"How are you feeling?" asked Angel, kneeling next to her as she sat up and handed her the bowl of soup.

Taking a sip of the hot liquid, she simply shrugged her shoulders, looking up at him with tear-filled eyes.

"O-okay I gu-guess. T-the cuts aren't t-t-too bad, b-b-but…" She didn't have to say it, they all knew that she was thinking about how Parker and Riley had tried to rape her.

"Buffy," began Angel, but she cut him off.

"Th-thank you guys, for rescuing me. I'm so g-glad that you came when you d-did," she stuttered.

"Come on Goldilocks, your part of our pack now. Of course we came to rescue you, we would never leave you in the hands of those bastards," declared Spike, smiling down and her, and managed to draw a small smile from Buffy as well.

"Are, are they, well…"

"They're dead," said Angel, a look of pure malice entering his eyes as he ran his hand absently down his arms.

It was silent once again for a while as the bowl of soup was finished, no one knowing quite what to say in this situation. Finally, Cordelia stood up.

"Well, I think that we have all had just about enough excitement for one night. The sun'll be up in about an hour, and I, personally, am exhausted. So, I'm going to bed, I'll see you in the morning." Having said that, the brunette gave one last smile to Buffy and then turned and walked away, settling down onto another bed a ways off.

"I think I'll do the same," agreed Gunn, also turning away, the rest of the pack nodding their heads in agreement as they followed him. Turning back, Willow gave a small smile.

"Call me if you need anything, Buffy," she said before walking away.

Angel, about to rise, was held back by a small hand on his arm.

"Wait, can you, can you please stay?" she asked him in a small voice, refusing to meet his eyes. "I, I don't really want to be alone right now."

"Of course," he replied, smiling slightly. Leaning down, he gently lifted the edge of the blankets she was wrapped in as he slipped in behind her. Wrapping his arms around her, he sighed in relief at the feel of her, glad that she was safe again. Sighing, Buffy turned and curled into his strong frame, resting her head on his chest as she closed her eyes, feeling completely protected.

Drifting off, she barely caught the whispered "Good night, Buffy", before sleep finally came to claim her.

* * *

_Yay! I have finally reached 100 reviews! Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing this story, it is really great to hear from you guys.  
_


	15. Return Home

_I am sooooooooooo sorry for taking forever and a half to post this chapter, and it is a bit shorter than usual but I thought that I might as well post something while I had it. This chapter is a bit shabby, I wasn't too certain about it and it is more of a transition from one stage of the story to the next, so it was really awkward for me to write. Sorry!_

_Anyways, here it is. _

15.

There was something draped across her stomach. That was Buffy's first thought as she woke up the next night just as the sun was disappearing behind the mountains. Trying not to panic, she slowly turned her head and saw a peacefully sleeping Angel, his arm wrapped around her possessively. That's when last night's events came back to hit her full force, and, sighing, she rested her head against his chest.

She had been so relieved when her friends had shown up, saving her just in the nick of time. She shuddered to think what would have most certainly happened had they not arrived when they did. It was comforting to know that they would never have the chance to bother her ever again, and their deaths brought a sort of closure to the destruction of her pack. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't realize that a pair of chocolate eyes were now focused on her hazel ones.

"Hey," Angel whispered, raising a hand to brush a strand of hair off her face.

"Jesus, Angel!" Buffy exclaimed, jumping as she realized that he was awake. "Don't do that to me!"

"Sorry. How are you feeling this morning?" he asked, concern spreading across his features as his hand moved down to gently finger a small scratch along her neck.

"It seems like you're always rescuing me from them," she murmured sadly, also thinking about the new adornments she had acquired on her recently healed body.

"Yeah, well now you don't ever have to worry about them again," he insisted fiercely, hating that they were still affecting her, even now as their bodies lay, lifeless and bloody, on the floor of some cave.

She simply smiled weakly at him, and then, sighing, she turned away and laid back down, whispering, "It'll still take awhile."

"So, listen," he began again after a short pause, deciding to drop the subject. "I was thinking that we'd head back tonight, right away."

"I'd really appreciate that," she murmured, playing with a leaf from the ground. "But, I don't want to be a burden," she added quickly.

"You can't be serious, Buffy!" exclaimed Angel, astonished that she actually thought that she was being a burden. "They almost raped you, for heavens sake!"

"Sorry," she mumbled, sitting up again and tucking her legs into her chest and resting her on her arms. The anger in his voice frightened her, and she turned her head so as to hide the tears that were just beginning to crawl down her face. She couldn't seem to control her emotions this morning.

"No, that's not what I meant, I…" Unable to adequately express himself, he ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "Look, it really scared me last night, seeing you there. I thought I was too late, that they had killed you or something, and I just think that we should all head back to the caves now. We've had plenty enough excitement for one trip, I think it's time we call it quits."

Raising her head, Buffy offered him a small smile as she moved over until she was curled up in his arms once again.

"I'm really glad that you weren't too late, either," she whispered to him as she closed her eyes, basking in the comfortable silence of the moment.

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The rest of the gang woke up shortly afterwards, and by then it was around 6:30 so they all decided to pack up and head towards home, seeing as how it would be a long trip. Everyone agreed that there was no point in staying to celebrate the last night of the full-moon; no one was in the mood and it would be good to get Buffy some proper medical attention sooner rather than later.

As they were walking back down the mountain, Willow couldn't help but smile to herself as she discreetly watched Buffy and Angel from the corner of her eyes. Angel had become much more protective of the blonde, not that anyone could blame him, but it was cute watching the way he would constantly look over at her, and then avert his eyes just as quickly.

The walk back was going much quicker than when they had come up, going downhill will do that for you, but despite the easier trip, Buffy could still feel the effects of the night before as her skin stretched, allowing her to feel every inch of her scrapes and scratches. They had been walking for close to three hours and she hoped they would be stopping soon for a short break. It would give her a chance to rest a bit and get some water. Fred, seeing how her friend would wince from time to time, finally spoke up.

"Hey guys, what do you think about taking a short break? I would really like to stop for a few minutes to rest," she declared.

"God, I never heard such a brilliant suggestion!" exclaimed Cordelia, plopping herself down on the nearest rock as she proceeded to pull water and chocolate candy out of her bag. Rolling their eyes at the brunette's antics, the rest of the group willingly followed her example, all of them feeling the effects of a long night of searching followed by only a few hours of sleep.

"How are ya doing, pet?" Spike asked Buffy as he walked over to where she was sitting.

"Pretty good, considering," she replied. "Some of my cuts hurt a bit, but there isn't really anything to do about that."

"Well, we are making great time, so I'd say that we only have about one more hour or so until we're back," declared Faith, entering the conversation and giving Buffy a pitying look, showing her concern for her. "Can you make it okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just a little sore, that's all, no big deal."

"Well, I'm sure my mom will have some sort of salve to put on them, you'll be healed in no time," she said just as Oz and Fred walked over to join in the talk.

"What time is the rest of the pack getting back anyways?" asked Fred, sitting down next to Buffy and offering her a piece of chocolate which was readily accepted.

"Yeah," said Oz, "'Cause aren't we coming back a day earlier?"

"I'm not sure exactly," murmured Faith, scrunching her nose slightly. "Hey, Angel! What time is everyone else gonna be back?"

Turning away from his pack to look at his sister, he looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging his shoulders.

"I'm not exactly sure," he began, "I think they were going to head towards Lake Uyg or something, and that's not all that far. And, they're going to be spending another night out there and then are going to come back, so I guess sometime tomorrow."

That having been said, a long silence spread throughout the group as they either drank water or stared out into space, enjoying the break while it lasted. Finally, Gunn sighed as he stood up and stretched his arms behind his head and then picked up his pack once again.

"Well gang, the sooner we get started the sooner we get there, so let's head out."

Groaning, everyone slowly got to their feet, Willow walking over to Buffy so that they could talk a bit on the way back.

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It was 11:00 at night when the weary group finally trudged into the front entrance hall of the caves, barely pausing to set down their stuff before heading to the kitchen to grab some food and then plopping down in one of the recreation rooms to relax. No one really said much, each just enjoying the silence, but soon Fred began drifting off, her head drooping down against her chest, and despite having slept most all of the day, everyone had to admit that they were tired.

"I think I'm gonna head to bed now," murmured Willow tiredly, standing up and stretching.

"Yeah," agreed everyone else, picking up the remainder of their food to throw away.

"I'll carry her back," said Gunn, nodding his head to the now unconscious Fred who was curled up into a ball, lightly snoring.

"Hey," whispered Angel, lightly laying a hand on Buffy's shoulder as she went to move past him. "You feeling alright?"

"Yeah," she nodded in response. At his pointed look she expanded. "I mean, some of my cuts are a little sore, but hey, what can you expect? I'm fine, really."

"Okay," he agreed, removing his hand and began to walk alongside her to her room. "My mom should be back sometimes tomorrow so she can take a look at you. Sorry we couldn't do a better job up in the mountains, but first aid really isn't any of our fortes."

Buffy just gave a small smile and continued to walk in comfortable silence with him until they arrived at the door to her, Willow and Fred's room. Opening the door, they watched as Willow crawled in her bed and Gunn placed Fred down on hers.

"Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow then," said Buffy, giving yet another smile before she slowly turned away and made her way to her closet. She quickly picked out a pair of comfortable sweatpants and a large t-shirt to sleep in. As Angel and Gunn left, everyone muttering sleepy goodnights, she made her way to the bathroom where she quickly changed and brushed out her hair and teeth. She tried to avoid looking at herself in the mirror, not yet ready to face herself as of yet. The whole incident had really shaken her up, but thankfully it was a lot easier to cope with since she now had friends standing by her.

Sighing, she made her way back to her bed and pulled back the covers, getting in and tucking them up to her chin. The next thing she saw was an anxious Jenny hovering over her, smiling and holding a bag of what appeared to be medical supplies.

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_Once again I apoligize for the long wait in between chapters, hopefully it won't take me so long again but you never know, what with school and everything else that I have to deal with. Please review and tell me what you think, and I promise that there will be some Buffy/Angel action coming up really really soon._


	16. Dinner with the Kafka pack

_I am sooooooo sorry that I haven't updated in like two months. I have been so busy lately, and unfortunately my schedule isn't getting any lighter, so I don't know when I will have time to write. I do plan on continuing this story though, so please don't give up on me yet._

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed, I love hearing from you guys!!_

_Also, just a quick note, but I decided to change around the ages of some people. So, from now on Buffy, Willow, and Fred with all be 16 and Faith and Cordelia will be 17. The boys' age will stay the same. I just decided to make the girls a bit older._

16.

It had been a week since the rest of the pack had returned from the full-moon trip, a week since Jenny had gingerly bandaged up Buffy's wounds, and now, as she quickly changed into her dress, Buffy noticed that she was once again almost healed. It had been hard explaining to the pack what had happened, but she had managed to get through it with the support of her friends, and most importantly, Angel. Giles had been livid, swearing that he would rip the two boys limb from limb, that is until he heard that the job had already been taken care of. Everyone had been very supportive, giving her space when she needed it and attention when she got fed up with her thoughts. Now, just seven days later, life was returning to normal and she felt safe again among her new family.

"Are you almost ready, Buffy?" shouted Willow through the bathroom door in their room. "It's almost six!"

"Just about!" she shouted back, running a brush through her hair and adding the final touches. Stepping back and looking at herself, she smiled, pleased with the results of her last-minute efforts.

"So who are we eating with again?" she asked, finally emerging from the bathroom to find both Fred and Willow waiting for her by the door, each wearing dresses as well.

"The Kofka pack," replied Fred as the three began walking toward the dinning hall, "they have been friends with our pack for years, and we get together every six months or so, this time it's our turn to host."

"Yeah, I think we have a deal with them or something," muttered Willow, scrunching her nose up as she thought about it.

"'S called an alliance, Red," chuckled Spike as he and Angel appeared from around the corner, followed closely by the rest of the guys.

"God, I'm starving!" complained Xander, dramatically clutching his stomach. "When do we get to eat again?", this earning him a smack from Gunn, who was just behind him. Childishly sticking out his tongue, he turned his attention back to the rest of the group. "Anyways, tonight should certainly be interesting, what with Buffy and all."

"What do you mean?" asked Buffy and Angel simultaneously, blushing as everyone laughed.

"Wh-why should it be interesting because of me?" Buffy tried again, fighting away the redness in her cheeks.

"Well, pet, 'cause they've never met you before; you're new, you're interestin'…" at the blonde's skeptical look, he quickly continued. "And, of course, because their leader, Charles, has got himself a twenty year old son, who just so 'appens to be lookin' for a mate."

"What?" she turned white, hoping she misheard him.

"Oh, yeah, Rein, I forgot about him," laughed Willow. "I remember the last time they were here he tried to hit on Faith, and you totally freaked out and punched him!" she said, pointing at Spike, whose face instantly contorted into a frown as he too remembered the incident.

"Little bastard," he mumbled, smirking shamelessly, "'e deserved it."

"But what does this have to do with me?" asked Buffy again, still confused as to where she fit into all of this.

"Well, it just so happens that Spike and me overheard a certain conversation yesterday between Giles and Jenny, caught our interest when you were mentioned," began Gunn.

"Yeah, we were just passin' by his office, but when we heard your name we decided to find out what they were talkin' about. Turns out someone in the Kafka pack found out about you, goldilocks, and when Charles heard he asked Giles about the whole situation. Even though our lovely leader was opposed to it, they decided that tonight would be a trial run for you two, see if you two get along. Nothing like a mating to unite two packs," he declared, finishing with a smug grin.

"Oh, Buffy," cooed Willow, "this sucks, I'm so sorry for you."

"Why are you so sorry for her?" asked Cordelia, a confused expression on her face as she joined the group, Faith following close behind her.

"Because she and Rein are going to mate," explained Xander casually.

"What!?!" exclaimed Faith, her jaw hanging open. Last time she checked Buffy was still completely hooked on Angel.

"Rein from the Kafka pack?" asked Cordelia, seemingly un-phased by this news. "I heard my parents talking about you two. Apparently you are moving in with them in two weeks, or something."

"Oh my god," said Buffy, starting to really panic, too much overwhelming information being sent her way.

"Harsh," agreed Oz, having been silent thus far.

"They aren't going to make you move in with them, Buffy," Angel rationalized, rubbing her arm supportively and trying unsuccessfully to tap down the severe amounts of jealousy that had surged from the thought of Buffy mating with someone else. "My parents would never do that, all you have to do is tell them that you aren't interested and then leave it at that."

"Yeah, Giles and Jenny would never do that, don't worry," agreed Fred, placing a supportive arm around the overwhelmed girl.

"What are you guys still doing out here?" asked Jenny, rushing up to them with a frustrated look on her face, sighing exaggeratedly as the ten of them just gave her blank stares. "You were supposed to be in there ten minutes ago so we can be ready to greet our guests when they arrive! Hurry up!!" she admonished, shooing them away with her hands.

"Buffy, can you wait here a second? I actually wanted to talk to you about something real fast," she added before the blonde could slink away with the rest of her friends.

Sending sympathetic glances at her over their shoulders, the rest of the gang continued on to the dinning hall, leaving their friend standing nervously in the hall, dreading what was to come.

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After standing around awkwardly for a few seconds, Jenny finally sighed and led Buffy into a small side room that was right off the hall, beckoning her in and motioning that she should take a seat on one of the couches.

"I don't really know how to start this, or make it any less awkward, so I'm just going to come out and say it," she began. "The leader of the Kafka pack, Charles, has a son who is of mating age. They somehow found out about you and I guess they've met you before, when you were much younger. Anyways, Rein, Charles's son, has requested to court you, and has been dropping some less than subtle hints that he plans to take you back with them in a few weeks when they cross over the mountains again to return home. Now, I don't know what your situation was with your former pack…" she prompted, leaving the statement open for Buffy to expand on.

"I-I, there was no one," she uttered weakly, still in shock over the whole thing. A complete stranger wanting to court her. Wanting to mate with her.

"Okay, well, I just wanted to let you know that neither me nor Giles are trying to force you into an unwanted situation, but we felt that it would be disrespectful to just outright refuse their request. And since you are under our care…"

"I understand," Buffy hurried to say, not wanting to give her the impression that she was ungrateful for everything that they had done for her.

"Listen, all we agreed to was to seat you two next to each other tonight. This way you can maybe get to know him a bit, see what he's like. You never know, you might end up liking him, and although your friends seem not to like him that much, I won't deny that he would be a worthy mate."

"I know that I shouldn't judge him before I know him, it's just that…"

"You had someone else in mind," Jenny smiled knowingly. She wasn't oblivious to the goings on amongst the younger members of the pack. She knew that Buffy and her son were each harboring crushes for the other, yet neither had done anything about it as of yet.

Buffy just blushed, hoping that Jenny didn't notice how guilty she looked.

"Why don't we head on in to the dinning hall, they should be arriving in a few minutes or so. I promise we are not trying to force you into anything, after tonight if you decided you never want to see him again, we'll completely support your decision." Having said that, Jenny got up from her seat and walked to the door with Buffy, then continued until they reached the dinning hall.

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Buffy was really nervous.

The idea of mating with anyone, not to mention a complete stranger, was certainly a scary thought. As she had been growing up she recalled the process her sister went through. All the young men from different packs coming over to meet her, as well as the few from their pack. The only one her sister had allowed to court her was a very nice young wolf, and if it wasn't for their untimely deaths, Buffy was sure the two would have mated.

In the older days, all matings were arranged by the parents of the two wolves. Thankfully, nowadays most packs simply allowed their sons or daughters to choose whomever they wished. She and Angel had been growing closer and closer over this past week, spending countless hours just talking and hanging out, and though she wasn't sure he reciprocated her feelings she by no means wanted to spend the entire evening sitting next to some male she didn't know, who had openly stated that he wanted to court her.

Shaking herself out of her inner musings, she quickly walked over to join Willow, Fred and Cordelia as they stood in their proper place to greet the visiting pack. Looking up, she caught Angel's eye as he stared at her from his place next to his parents and Faith in the center of the room.

"What did she want to talk about?" whispered Willow.

"About Rein," Buffy murmured in response. "She wanted to make sure that I knew that they weren't going to force me into anything."

"Well, that's good at least; he's really not that bad."

"I know, but" she was cut off as the doors swung open and in walked a fair amount of people, immediately going over to Angel and his family. She caught sight of who she assumed was Rein, walking next to who was obviously the leader of the Kafka pack. He was fairly tall, with sandy blonde hair and light blue eyes. He wasn't bad looking, by any means, but still, he was a complete stranger.

She watched as he spoke with Giles and Jenny, and then cringed inwardly when she saw them pointing over to where she was standing, wondering if it was too late to run away. 'Oh no!' she thought. 'He's coming over here! Shit!!' Looking up at her, he smiled as he strode through the now crowded room to where she was standing, frozen in place.

"Hello Willow," he greeted politely in acknowledgment of the red head, his voice coming out calmly. "It's good to see you again."

"Y-you too, Re-rein," she stuttered.

"And you must be the lovely Buffy," he continued, turning his attention to the blonde. "I've been looking forward to meeting you."

Taking a deep breath, she managed a small smile, trying to suppress her nerves.

"I'm not sure if you know this, but I actually had the pleasure of meeting you once before, you must have only been five years old then. I must say, you've grown into a very beautiful woman," he stated, smirking at her and making her feel very uncomfortable.

"I wonder if you might grace me with your company at dinner tonight?" he questioned, offering his hand out to her.

Shooting one last pleading look at Willow, she turned back to Rein, smiling slightly and managing a weak "Sure." With this she took his offered hand and followed him over to the tables where everyone was beginning to sit down.

"Let the games begin," she muttered under her breath.

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_Please Review!!!_


	17. Rein

_Hey Guys! Once again, I am so sorry for the wait, I tried to write this chapter as fast as I could. I wasn't too sure about this one, but I thought it would be a funny situation to put Buffy in._

_Anyways, please read and review!!_

17.

Buffy silently listened to the dim music playing throughout the hall and absently stared at the flickering candles stationed periodically along the table, all the while nodding her head at the stream of words pouring from Rein's mouth. Tuning him out, she allowed her gaze to settle on Angel, sitting two down from her across the table where he was talking to Gunn. She sighed dreamily, imaging a world where the Kafka pack did not exist, and she and Angel were sharing a private, cozy dinner in a secluded room…

"Buffy?"

"Huh??" she asked, turning back to Rein and blinking stupidly at him.

"I asked," he chuckled nervously, "how your food was."

"Oh, uh," she stumbled, glancing down at her plate. "It's fine, qu-quite good in fact."

"Good," he declared, still looking at her as though unsure of her state of mind. "Well, how about you?" he asked, plastering an award winning smile back on his face.

"How about me, what?" she asked, smiling sweetly at him and hoping he couldn't see through her façade, all the while glancing over at where Giles and Jenny were eating, praying that they would be finished soon and the dinner over.

"Well I've just been going on and on about myself all night, and I only met you that one time so there's a lot I don't know about you. I'm just dying to find out how you ended up here, away from your pack."

At first Buffy considered telling him that her recent change of home was due to her impending mating with on of the young men of this pack, hoping that he would take the hint and back off, but she knew he wouldn't buy it seeing as how he already knew she was available or else he wouldn't be sitting next to her right now.

"Oh, you know, my life. What's there to say, really? I-I'd much rather hear some more about you," she declared, upping her smile a bit in the hopes that it would get him off of her back. There was no way that she was going to discuss the recent events of her life with him. They were still too fresh in her mind and she really didn't even know this guy.

"Oh, come on," he insisted, not allowing her an easy way out. "How am I supposed to get to know you if you won't tell me anything?"

"Ummm, well, it-it's just that my life is so boring, you wouldn't be interested, trust me," she tried again, desperate for him to drop the subject and go back to droning on about useless subjects. How was she supposed to ignore him if she had to actually talk to him?

"Alright then, let's just start with some of the basics," he conceded, not giving up but at least moving on to a different subject. "You have a sister, right? I seem to recall she was older than you. Dawn, wasn't it?"

Buffy just nodded, not trusting her voice to speak as her throat had suddenly constricted at the mention of her sister. It was still so painful to talk about them, especially in such a casual manner, though in all honesty she couldn't blame him, he had no idea what had happened and how hard it was for her to be reminded of her family.

"So… is she your only sibling?" he tried to prompt her, unaware of the effect his questions had on the blonde sitting next to him.

"Y-y-yes, she, she was," replied Buffy, her voice coming out in barely a whisper. Swallowing, she tried desperately to quell the onslaught of tears that were beginning in her eyes. Leaning forward, she grabbed her water glass from off the table and took a swift drink, trying to focus all of her attention on the way the cool liquid spilled down her throat.

"Was?" he questioned, a confused look gracing his features. "Don't you mean 'is'?"

"What?" asked Buffy, torn from her concentration.

"You said 'was'," he repeated. "You said 'she _was_ your sister'. Didn't you mean to say 'is'?"

Cringing at her stupid mistake, Buffy simply took another large gulp of water to stall for time. She didn't exactly fancy explaining her choice in words to him, but she couldn't think up anything that she could use as a decent excuse. She could just outright lie to him…

"So, Rein, how's your sister doing?" asked Willow, who was sitting on the other side of him, interrupting the conversation between the two blondes.

She had inconspicuously been listening in and decided that she better intervene for the sake of her friend. She shot a small, sympathetic glance over to Buffy, receiving a mouthed '_thank you_' in return.

"Yeah, how is Isabella doing?" chimed in Fred, who was sitting across the table from Willow and also very aware of the conversation that had been taking place.

Slightly annoyed at the interruption but knowing he couldn't be rude, Rein gave a short smile to Buffy before turning his attention to the other two females, missing the loud sigh of relief she gave. Setting her water down, Buffy returned her focus to the flickering candles and her fantasies of a life after this dinner.

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Meanwhile, across the table Angel was having a hard time controlling himself. He had been watching the duo out of the corner of his eyes throughout the entire meal, stabbing his fork mercilessly into his food as he imagined the numerous ways he could kill Rein with his bare hands.

Spike, looking over his friend from his seat next to him, just smiled to himself, exchanging a knowing glance with Gunn.

"So, Peaches, how's the food treatin' ya?" he asked finally, chuckling at the blank stare he received.

"You know, Angel, he's going to be gone tonight, you really don't have to worry about anything," laughed Gunn, thoroughly amused at his friend's situation.

"Yeah, and you know, it's not like she's your mate, or anythin'. The girl doesn't even know you like her and you haven't got any claim over her. In fact, she would be completely entitled to fall madly in love with nancy boy over there and not feel the slightest amount of guilt about it because…"

The angry growl coming from Angel immediately cut him off and he just went back to sipping at his water, the amused smirk never leaving his face.

"Just think, a few more hours and he'll be gone," assured Gunn.

"Unless he decides to spend the night, the two of them seem to really be hitting it off…" trailed off Spike, taking extreme pleasure in eliciting yet another angry growl from his friend.

"Who does he think he is, anyways?" muttered Angel under his breathe. "Marching in here and just assuming that Buffy will fall at his feet. He doesn't even know her. He doesn't know what she has been through and what she is still going through, he doesn't know anything about her…" he continued on with his rant, gripping his knife tighter and tighter.

"Ooookay, we wouldn't want the other silverware to get jealous, now would we?" joked Gunn, removing the knife from the brunette's death grip. "Just relax, man, she's totally not into him."

Sighing, Angel resumed his meal, watching as Rein began talking to Fred and Willow and Buffy went back to staring at the candles lined up on the table.

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A half an hour later everyone had pretty much finished up with their food and the tables were being cleared to make way for an impromptu dance floor in the center of the room. Wanting to seize his chance, Rein quickly stood up as he saw Buffy beginning to drift towards the exit.

"Excuse me, ladies," he stated politely to Fred and Willow, "but I simply cannot miss this opportunity. I'll talk to you later."

Willow and Fred simply stood together shaking their heads in sympathy, watching as Rein reached Buffy right before she could escape. Although they couldn't hear the conversation, it was clear from the look on Buffy's face that the last thing she wanted to do was dance with him, however that didn't stop him from sweeping her out onto the floor mere seconds later.

"Poor Buffy," whispered Willow, feeling bad for her friend but finding it amusing at the same time.

"I agree," laughed Fred.

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Buffy sighed for what felt like the millionth time that night. She had almost made it. Past all the talking, smiling people and out into the hallway, the hallway that signified freedom and escape; she was almost there. And yet here she was now, out on the dance floor with Rein's arm wrapped firmly around her waist as they moved to the music. She bitterly recalled the conversation where he had begged her to grace him with a dance. _Please_, he had said, _I would be most honored_, he had said. She groaned silently to herself.

"I must say, Buffy," stated Rein, breaking through her inner musings, "I've had a great time with you tonight."

"Oh, ah, me too, Rein," agreed Buffy, giving him a fairly sincere smile. After all, he hadn't actually done anything wrong. It wasn't his fault that he didn't have brown hair, a strong, muscular physique, dreamy chocolate eyes…

"It just seems so hard to imagine that that little girl that I met all those years ago would grow into such a beautiful woman, and that she would be dancing in my arms here with me tonight," he continued, smiling sweetly at her and spinning her around. "Our mistress moon can be so kind in that way."

"Ummm, yeah, life can be lucky like that," agreed Buffy nervously, dreading where this conversation might be going.

"I mean, one day your just wandering through life, no purpose or goals, and then, BAM, it just hits you, and you're like, wow! It's like I didn't know what I was missing before!"

"Before," repeated Buffy dumbly, a note of panic edging her voice this time. "B-Before what, exactly?"

"You know, before you, us, meeting you here tonight again, after all these years," he declared enthusiastically, his eyes sparkling and his voice becoming more excited by the minute.

"Oh, ummmmmm…. Well, Rein, I'm flattered, really; it's just that…" luckily her attempts to set him straight were interrupted.

"Excuse me, but can I have this dance?" asked Angel, sparing a fleeting glance to Rein before returning his smoldering gaze to the blonde goddess before him. He had been watching the two from his position along the wall and had finally convinced himself to intervene upon seeing the increasingly desperate look upon Buffy's face.

"Well actually, we were kind of in the middle of something here," Rein attempted to get in, but not before Buffy could quickly nod and take Angel's proffered hand, him leading them farther onto the dance floor and away from the frustrated young wolf.

"Do you know how much I love you right now?" asked Buffy teasingly, smiling up at Angel as they moved to the music.

Even knowing that she was joking with him, it still took Angel a few seconds to regain his voice.

"It looked like you could use a little help," he replied, smirking down at her. "You looked really freaked out," he laughed slightly, taking immense pleasure in the fact that she had not been enjoying her time spent in the other man's arms.

"Yeah, well, you try standing there listening to him going on and on about how his life wasn't complete before he met you, he didn't know what he was missing, yadda, yadda, yadda…" she trailed off exaggeratedly, muttering under her breath. She was much too focused on the strong, hard body that she was pressed intimately against, the way her heartbeat seemed to race and a blush spread across her entire body.

"So, you don't like him then?" asked Angel hesitatingly, hoping he already knew the answer.

The look of horror on her face was almost comical, if it wasn't for the intense relief spreading through his body.

"How can you even ask that, Angel?! H-he-he's way too boring, and presumptuous, and, and I don't even know him…"

"Okay, okay," laughed Angel, cutting her off mid-rant, a silly grin plastered to his face. "Just thought I'd check."

"Hmmmp!" she declared as they drifted back off into a comfortable silence.

Angel couldn't actually believe that he was holding Buffy in his arms, so close he could smell her hair and the vanilla of her skin. _This is where she belongs_, he though to himself. _Right here in my arms_.

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The song ended all to quickly for their likings and before either of them knew it Rein was back and Angel was once again left to return to his position on the wall, growling low in his throat as he watched the bastard's hands in their spot around Buffy's waist.

"Ah, there they are!" exclaimed Rein, breaking Buffy out of her daydreaming and back into the present. "Come on, I'd like you to meet my parents."

"Your parents?" Buffy uttered meekly, being drug across the room by her hand.

"Mom, dad," began Rein upon reaching an older couple who were chatting with some people Buffy recognized from her pack, "this is Buffy."

"Hi," she greeted, mustering the best smile she could under the circumstances. "It's nice to meet you," she added, shaking their hands.

"Well, Buffy, it's certainly nice to meet you again, after so many years," replied Charles in a loud, booming voice. He had grayish brown hair and a very stately, rigid appearance, as he towered nearly a foot and a half over Buffy's own height. Rein's mother, on the other hand, still had her sandy blonde hair and was about the same height as her son.

"Hello Buffy, you can call me Martina," she said in a surprisingly high pitched voice. "My, what a lovely thing you are!"

"Thanks," muttered Buffy, blushing profusely.

"Well, have you had a chance to pack yet, dear?" questioned Martina, glancing questioningly over at her son and then again to Buffy.

"P-pa-pack?" she stuttered, completely confused and caught off guard. "Pack for what?"

"Well, I had assumed that you would want to bring some of your things with you, naturally," she replied flippantly, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"I, I think there's been a mistake," said Buffy rapidly, beginning to panic again and looking over at Rein. "I hadn't planned on going anywhere."

"Why, that's preposterous," interrupted Charles, laughing slightly. "And how do you presume to mate with my son if you are still living here, hmmm?"

"O-okay," began Buffy backing away from the group slightly. "I think there has been a big misunderstanding here. Re-rein, I'm really sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, but I don't want to be your mate and I don't plan on going with you."

_There, I said it!_ she thought, _now all I have to do is slowly retreat…_

"Well, why not?" demanded Charles angrily, not even giving his son a chance to say anything.

"I didn't mean to offend you, or anything," said Buffy, desperately looking around for someone, anyone who could help her out of this situation. "I-I'm just not exactly looking for a mate right now," she finished hurriedly, letting out a sigh of relief as she saw Jenny and Giles approaching.

"Is there a problem here?" asked Giles, his gaze focusing mainly on Buffy.

"Giles, I thought you said that this girl would be a perfect mate for my son!" accused Charles, focusing his anger on the newest arrivals.

"I was simply commenting on what an upstanding young lady Buffy was, not insinuating that she would agree to go with you and your son," threw back Giles, trying to stay calm and navigate the situation as carefully as possible.

"Come on Buffy, why don't you head back to your rooms now?" said Jenny gently, noticing the nervous and uncomfortable look on the young girl's face.

Buffy just nodded and turned back to Rein one last time. "I really am sorry, Rein," she said softly. "I did have a good time with you tonight."

And then with that she was gone, walking hurriedly out the door of the dinning room as she thanked the goddess moon for getting her out of that situation relatively unscathed.

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The room she shared with Fred and Willow was dark when she arrived, so Buffy quickly got out of her clothes and into her pajamas, crawling into her bed. The evening had been completely exhausting and she just wanted to escape into the land of sleep and dreams. However, this was not to be quite yet as the door to the room opened again and in came her roommates.

"Yay, she's alive!!" said Willow, laughing slightly.

"I'm glad you found that all so funny," groaned Buffy, smiling at her friends.

"Just be thankful it's over," chimed in Fred, starting to undress. "Of course, you're probably going to have to see him again 'cause our packs are so close…" she added.

"Ahhh, way to make me feel better!" she groaned, laying back down and throwing her blankets over her head.

"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad," started Willow, but upon seeing the blonde's look she hastened to amend, "Okay, so it was pretty bad, but didn't I see you and Angel dancing at one point?" she added, lifting her eyebrows suggestively.

The only answer she received was a contented sigh and a dreamy look spreading across Buffy's face.

"Okay, so the evening wasn't **all** bad," she finally conceded. "But god, it was so awkward and embarrassing. I mean, when he took me over to his parents and they were all like, 'So, are you packed yet?'"

"Oh, poor Buffy," cooed Fred, making a sympathetic face.

They were interrupted by the door opening once again, this time admitting Cordelia and Faith.

"You can breathe easy now, B," declared Faith, coming in and sitting down on the end of Buffy's bed. "The entire Kafka pack just left."

"Thank god," sighed Buffy, letting out a tired yawn. "Now I can just go to sleep and forget any of this ever happened!"

"Like we're ever gonna let you forget it!!" laughed Cordelia, everyone else joining in. Buffy just groaned good-naturedly, rolling over and going to sleep as her friends continued to talk around her.

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_Review! Review! Review!_


	18. Thank God for Biology

_I am so sorry that I haven't update in soooooo long. Not only have I been super-busy but on top of that I have severe writer's block. Sorry to keep you guys waiting for so long. Now, just a note, I kind of forgot that Buffy had been in Angel's room before, so if some of this makes no sense I apologized, though I tried to fix it as best I could. Also, I decided that all the kids of the pack would have to attend 'lessons', kinda like school Buffy and her friends have their own class. Hope it all makes sense, if not just let me know and hopefully I can clear it all up. _

_Enjoy!!_

18.

A few weeks had gone by since the whole incident with Rein, and life in the pack had basically returned to normal, despite the continued jokes made by the tight-knit group of friends. It still hurt for Buffy to think back to her old life, but the pain was rapidly being replaced by new memories as she slowly grew accustomed to her new 'family'.

"Buffy!"

Instantly jerking her head around, the blonde offered a sheepish look to the irate man standing in front of her.

"Yes, Mr. Johnson?" she asked innocently, knowing she had been caught not paying attention.

She and the other teenage members of the pack were all sitting through one of their daily lessons, in which Mr. Johnson would attempt to instill in the youths an appreciation for the English language. Besides this class, the ten friends were also required to take math, history and biology.

"Could you please explain to me what, exactly, is so fascinating?" Mr. Johnson asked good-naturedly, smiling slightly.

In reality, Buffy had been staring at Angel's left ear, and how it just seemed to fit his head perfectly…. but she wasn't about to tell her English teacher that.

"Nothing, sorry," she replied instead, picking up her pencil and returning her attention to her notes.

"Well then, let us return to the oh so fascinating world of poetry, shall we?" asked Mr. Johnson, smiling when he heard the ten simultaneous groans.

Glancing up at the clock, Buffy sighed when she realized that there were still fifteen minutes of class left. Normally she liked English, it being one of her better subjects, but today she was feeling really restless and unable to concentrate on anything.

Loosing focus again, she let her gaze wander around the room. Today's class was being held in the kitchen, one of her favorite places since it retained a smell of herbs. Having no designated school rooms, the classes would be moved around from room to room, depending on what space was available. This system seemed to work fine, plus it gave the students the added bonus of using the excuse of not being able to find the room as an explanation for tardiness.

Looking back down to her notes she started doodling on the paper, praying for the clock to move faster.

"However, he was most noted for his later work, which we will get into next time," stated Mr. Johnson. "Remember, familiarize yourself with the poems we went over today, I will be quizzing you on them sometime soon. Class dismissed."

Leaping out of her seat, Buffy quickly began gathering up her stuff, desperately wanting to remove herself from the academic setting.

"Looks like you were spacing out there, Buffster," remarked Xander, coming up behind her with a grin plastered on his face as Buffy simply glared playfully at him.

"What do you mean, Xander?" interjected Faith. "B was completely focused. Just not on the lesson," she added quietly with a smirk, making Buffy blush and look away.

It just figured that Faith would catch her checking out her brother. Deciding to ignore the brunette, Buffy attempted to switch topics.

"Please tell me that we don't have anymore lessons for today?" she asked in a pleading voice, looking around at her companions with a hopeful face.

"Yep, all done today!" replied Willow cheerfully. She, unlike most of her friends, actually enjoyed the lessons.

"But don't forget, we have that big test in Biology in two days," added Fred, grimacing at the thought despite her shared enjoyment of knowledge. Biology was never fun.

"We have a Bio test?!?" exclaimed Cordelia, looking panicked. "Since when?"

"What the hell **is** Biology?" asked Spike. Then looking around at all the perplexed looks on his friend's faces, he walked off muttering to himself, the only distinguishable words being "study my ass off" and "bloody 'ell".

"I say let sleeping dogs lie," suggested Gunn, shrugging noncommittally. "Who's up for swimming?" he asked instead, to which he received immediate approval and the gang headed off to their respective rooms to change.

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The afternoon passed by in a blur, the nine teenagers, Spike was off studying, engaging in countless water fights and ending with Cordelia chasing Xander, screaming that if he ever touched her hair again he would be a dead man. After dinner the group settled down in one of the entertainment rooms, watching a movie and forgetting all about the Biology test that was looming in their future.

The next morning was greatly consumed by a math lesson, a subject taught by two adults in the hopes that double the effort would double the chances of the students actually remembering the material. As the class was dismissed, Buffy sighed heavily and placed her head in her hands.

"Biology test?" asked Angel, smirking down at her as he came to stand beside her desk.

"Unfortunately," she groaned, trying desperately to control the fluttering in her stomach. _That damn smirk of his!_ she cursed him in her mind.

Setting his books down on a nearby desk he straddled the chair in front of her, mentally preparing himself.

"Well, if you wanted, I could help you study for it," he offered, holding his breath as he waited for her response.

Hoping desperately that he couldn't hear the rapid beating of her heat, she struggled to contain the girlish giggle threatening to burst forth, while at the same time smiling nonchalantly.

"Oh, it would be great if you could," she replied, hoping she didn't sound too eager. "I seriously suck at the whole science thing," she added rapidly.

Laughing slightly at the light blush coating the blonde's cheeks, Angel tried desperately to keep the silly grin off his face. He failed.

"Okay then," he said, standing up once again and picking his books back up, a quick glance around the room telling him they were alone. "Why don't you come to my room in about an hour?"

_Room? Angel-room? Her, Angel, his room, alone? Her and Angel alone?????__Yes!!!!!!!!!!_

"Sounds good," she replied calmly, standing up and grabbing her stuff as she followed him from the room. "I'll see you then."

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"What!?!?!"

After parting ways with Angel, Buffy had practically run back to her room, eager to find her friends and share with them her afternoon plans.

"He seriously asked you to study with him? In his room??" asked Willow excitedly, smiling at the uncontrollable grin plastered across her friend's face.

"Yes," she confirmed again while plopping down on her bed. "It was so unexpected. He just came right up and asked if I needed help with the Biology test, he was so sweet!!"

"Hmmmm, he's actually really good at Biology, he always gets better grades then me," stated Fred matter-of-factly.

"So no the point here," declared Willow, shrugging off the comment. "The point is, he asked Buffy to study with him. _Alone_. In his room. This is so huge!!!!"

All of a sudden nerves started to hit Buffy.

"What if he really does just want to study, no ulterior motive?" she asked dejectedly, her happy mood deflating a bit. "I mean, he must know that I suck at Bio, what if he is just trying to be nice?"

"No way," said Fred firmly.

"Buffy, this is Angel we are talking about," added Willow dramatically. "Angel who's had a crush on you since he first saw you. Trust me, there **are** ulterior motives," she finished adamantly.

Her nerves remained even as the smile returned to her face, taking deep breaths in order to calm her racing heart. The three friends talked a little longer before Buffy finally got up and collected her Biology book, notes and a pencil and then headed off to see what the afternoon would have in store for her.

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After hearing the short rap at his door, Angel hurriedly shoved the rest of his clothes in the closet and closed the door. Upon inviting Buffy over to study in his room he hadn't taken into account the fact that he hadn't cleaned his room in over a month. It was a mess and he had been desperately cleaning for over half an hour. He took a calm breath before slowly swinging the door open to reveal the object of his obsession.

"Hey, Buffy," he said, his voice coming out huskily, his gaze sweeping her figure.

"Hey," she murmured in reply, her breath catching at the sight of him. As he moved to the side to let her into his room, she sighed, wondering how much studying she would actually be able to get done with him in the same room.

"So, I brought my book and my notes," Buffy stated, holding up the objects in question and looking uncertain as to where to begin.

"Okay," acknowledged Angel, motioning towards the table where his stuff was already set out. "I figured that we could start with going over cell multiplication and DNA structure, then move on to proteins."

"Sounds like a plan," she agreed, settling down and opening her book.

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Buffy sighed heavily for what felt like the millionth time and quietly began tapping her pencil against the paper. They had been studying for over an hour and her brain was really starting to hurt. All this talk of cells, and tiny miniscule particles that she could care less about… it was enough to make any girl exhausted. Angel was being a huge help though. He was really good at Biology, at all of his subjects actually, as Buffy knew, and he had a lot of cool tricks that he told her to help her remember stuff.

Glancing up she snuck a quick look at the person sitting across from her. Her eyes swept across his defined features and his luscious lips, a delightful shiver running through her spine. Moving downwards her gaze landed on his chest and the powerful muscles she was certain resided beneath.

"What?"

Blushing when she realized she'd been caught, Buffy slowly returned her eyes to Angel's connecting with warm, penetrating brown.

"You looked lost there for a second," he teased her good-naturedly. He had caught her staring at him and couldn't help but tease her about it.

"Oh, ummmm, just couldn't concentrate on this stuff anymore," she offered, indicating her notes that were strewn about her. "I think my brain is officially fried."

"How about we take a break?" he suggested as he stood up, stretching his arms and rolling his head from side to side.

Smiling she got up as well and stretched her back a bit. Then, glancing around her, she took the opportunity to examine her surroundings more closely. She had only ever been in Angel's room briefly, the one time she had changed there, and so she decided to get a better look at the place.

His room was big; all of the young males of the pack had their own rooms, in the hopes that when they took mates the space could be transformed into a room for two people. Looking around Buffy took in the table where they had been working and noticed also a couch, a few comfortable looking chairs, a bookshelf and what looked like a miniature art studio. Moving closer, she saw that the space was indeed consumed by art supplies and pieces that he had both completed and was still working on.

"Wow," she murmured, running her hand along a paintbrush.

"What?" asked Angel apprehensively. He was very self conscious of his work and wasn't sure whether her exclamation had been one of awe or distaste.

"These are really good," she said, picking up a portrait he had drawn of his mom. Turning to smile at him, she continued. "I never knew that you were an artist. This stuff is amazing!"

"Thanks," he muttered sheepishly. He had received compliments on his work before, of course, but coming from her it was a different matter completely.

"How long have you been drawing?" she asked, turning back to her perusal.

"Ever since I can remember. It started just as a way to keep from getting bored, but now, I don't know, I guess I like being able to express myself," he admitted.

"My sister was pretty good at the whole art thing," declared Buffy, dropping her hand and moving on toward the bookshelves. "I remember one time a few years ago when I was sick I was so sad because I couldn't join the rest of the pack on the full moon trip. When she got back she handed me this piece of paper and on it was this painting of a sunset, up in the mountains. It wasn't the most perfect thing in the world but I loved it anyways."

"Does it still hurt to talk about them?" asked Angel. She laughed gently and shook her head.

"I'm always going to miss them but, I guess I've accepted it. They wouldn't want me to be sad forever." Looking down quickly, she took a deep breath and then returned her focus to the man standing in front of her. "Now I could be loosing my mind, but last time I was here I could have sworn that I saw a bed," she teased him to show that she truly was okay.

Smiling, Angel moved past her and towards a door that was at her back. Pushing it open he indicated that she could enter. Walking through she gasped. Though she had seen it before she had somehow managed to forget just how big his bed actually was. The bed was enormous and was right in the center of the room. It was covered in dark green and blue covers with matching pillows, looking warm and as though it could comfortably fit five people, with room to spare! On the far wall was a magnificent fireplace with two large chairs surrounding it, and on the opposite wall was what she presumed to be his closet next to a set of drawers. As she moved farther into the room, at a loss for words, she noticed another door was open and glancing through she saw the familiar territory of his 'bathroom', equipped with pool and hot tub.

Angel, meanwhile, could stare at nothing but the petite blonde in front of him. The sight of her in his bedroom, running her hand along his bed, was rapidly sending his mind to places it shouldn't be. Shaking his head roughly, he simply smiled at her and followed as she ventured into his bathroom.

"God, I love your bathroom," she cooed, bending down to run her hand through the water.

"It definitely has its perks," he agreed, kneeling with her to feel the water.

Suddenly getting an idea, Buffy slowly got to her knees, then, when she was sure he wasn't looking, she quickly shoved him, running away from the resulting splash.

"What the hell!?!?!" shouted Angel, confused as to his sudden sodden state. Sputtering, he quickly wiped the water from his eyes, fixing them on the laughing blonde standing a few feet away.

She just smiled innocently at him.

"I couldn't resist?" she offered as way of an excuse. He just scoffed, trying to hide his devilish smirk.

"Help me out," he said, raising his hand for her to grab.

Thinking nothing of it, Buffy approached to help him out. Five seconds and several shrieks later, both teens were thoroughly soaked.

As her head resurfaced Buffy looked around wildly until her gaze finally landed on Angel, fixing him with deadly glare. She quickly cupped her hands and gathered up a bunch of water, flinging it into his face. Not missing a beat, Angel rapidly threw water back, and soon both were lost in their seemingly endless water fight.

Dodging a particularly large splash, Angel lunged forward, catching Buffy's hands before she could strike again. The two teens were breathing loudly, chests heaving, and suddenly they both realized how close they were. Buffy could feel the solid mass of Angel's chest pressed against hers, his wet clothes plastered to his strong body. Looking up, her heartbeat increased as she watched a drop of water run down his forehead, leaving a wet streak in its wake.

Angel was similarly suffering; he could feel her every curve pressed up against him, and looking down he became mesmerized with the intense hazel of her eyes and the way her eyelashes clung together wetly. Before he knew what was happening, his lips were pressed against hers, gentle at first, but then stronger, gently probing her mouth.

He felt her gasp and shudder beneath him as he slowly moved his hand up to tangle in her hair, drawing her ever closer. Breaking apart for air he looked into her eyes, desperately hoping he wouldn't find rejection. When all he found was passion laced with shyness, he grinned and dipped in to taste her once more, not being able to resist his newfound addiction. Finally he found the strength to pull away and take a step back, both were panting heavily.

"Buffy?" he asked cautiously, trying to gauge her reaction.

"Yeah?" she replied breathlessly.

"I-I, tha-that was, uh,"

"Amazing?" she finished for him, smiling shyly.

"Definitely," he grinned back, moving forward again to wrap a hand gently around her waist.

"I've never kissed anyone before," she admitted nervously, not meeting his gaze.

"We should practice then, right?" murmured Angel, moving in again and capturing her lips in a tender caress that was over all too soon.

"Angel," she reprimanded teasingly, pushing him away slightly. "What does this mean?"

"It means that we both have feelings for each other, and we should date," he replied matter-of-factly.

"Date?"

"If you want to," he nodded his head, staring into her eyes.

"I'd like that," she agreed, grinning at him.

"Good," he said, "because I'd like to too."

Looking down into the water, she groaned a little, looking back up at her now boyfriend.

"We should really go finish studying now," she said apologetically.

He laughed softly and, smiling, helped her out of the water and over to a stack of towels that he had lying by the pool. Turning to hand one to her, he grimaced as he realized the state of her clothes.

"Here, take this and then give me one second and I'll grab you some of my clothes you can change into," he offered, to which she simply nodded her head.

Following him back into the main rooms she sighed dreamily. '_Thank god for Biology!!_' she thought.

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_Thank you to all those people who reviewed my last chapter. I love hearing from you guys!! _


	19. Movie Date

_Hey guys, I know who you were all probably wondering if I would ever get around to updating this story. Sorry it took me so long, I have had serious writer's block. Anyways, this chapter is kind of a transitional chapter to move the plot along. Also, let me remind you that the story is rated T for a reason, so just bear that in mind!! Thanks!_

19.

"Wait, wait, what happened then?" asked Cordelia excitedly from her perch on Buffy's bed, where all the girls had gathered, anxious to hear Buffy's account of her study date with Angel.

"You know, no matter how many times I tell the story it doesn't change," said Buffy, pretending to be exasperated but secretly ecstatic. She could barely wipe the grin off her face.

"Wow, way to go B," declared Faith smiling, whistling low in her throat and causing a blush to spread across the blonde's cheeks.

"He really kissed you? In the pool? Oh, that's soooooo romantic!" gushed Willow, bouncing slightly up and down. She knew the two of them would get together eventually.

Looking around at her four friends, Buffy finally started to feel like things in her new life were maybe going to be okay. She had finally admitted her feelings about Angel, and to her surprise he felt the same way. She was still reeling a little from the shock of the whole afternoon. The second she got back from studying she was bombarded with questions about her wet clothes and what had happened; they were relentless.

"So, you're like dating now?" asked Cordelia, still confused as to the outcome of the entire event.

"Well, I think so. I mean, he told me that he'd like to, so I guess, yeah, we are," she stuttered nervously, still a little unsure about everything.

"What was it like to kiss him?" questioned Fred excitedly, blushing as Faith groaned beside her.

"Geez, this is my brother we're talking about here. I **so** don't need that kind of information."

"It was amazing," murmured Buffy. "It was just so, mhhhhhhhhh..." she trailed off in a dreamy sigh, earning giggles from all the girls, minus a disgusted Faith.

Yep, life was good.

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As the weeks slowly passed the novelty of Buffy and Angel's new relationship failed to wear off, though luckily their friends' teasing remarks slowly died down.

Standing in the kitchen, Buffy idly stirred the pot she was holding, humming to herself as she listened to the conversation going on around her. She and Willow were helping out with some of the cooking that day since there had been nothing else to do. Fred was off in the woods gathering plants to study, Faith and Cordelia were visiting some people from a nearby pack, and all the boys were at a political meeting of sorts.

Giles was slowly starting to hand off more responsibilities to his son, and in turn the other young male members of the pack were becoming more involved as well. Buffy didn't know much about what they were doing, but she knew it involved relations between the packs.

Setting down the bowl she had been holding, she moved over the counter where she began chopping up an onion. Apparently spaghetti was on the menu for dinner, since for the past hour she had been helping to put together sauce and cook noodles.

"Hey, Buffy, can you pass me that meat?" asked Willow, pointing to the bowl of hamburger meat located near the blonde's elbow.

Grabbing out a piece and quickly popping it in her mouth before passing over the bowl , Buffy started laughing as she caught sight of her friend. The redhead had tomato seeds splattered across her apron and what looked like a noodle tangled in her hair. Sometimes her friend amazed her.

All of a sudden she let out a gasp as she felt two strong arms wrapping around her from behind, and turning she was met with the grinning face of her boyfriend. Leaning down, he pressed a soft kiss to her lips, pulling away slowly.

"Hey you," she murmured, biting her lip gently as she smiled up at him. "Did you just get back?"

"Yeah, just a few minutes ago. I went to look for you in your room but I saw Fred and she told me you were in here. I didn't know you could cook."

"I can't," she grinned sheepishly, reaching behind her back for a rag to wipe her hands off on. "They put me in charge of sauce, it's impossible to screw it up since it's basically just mixing up a bunch of stuff."

"Ummm, it smells so good," he muttered, looking at the array of food spread out over the counter. "I feel like I haven't eaten in forever."

"Poor baby," she cooed, moving over to one of the cabinets to grab a plate. "You must be really hungry. How did the meeting go?" she asked as she moved around the room, filling the plate with pasta, asparagus and bread.

"Ughhhh," he groaned, rolling his eyes. "God, I thought it would never end. People just kept talking and arguing, it's amazing we got anything done at all."

"Well, now that it's over, what do you want to do?" she asked, handing him the plate laden with food and sticking the fork right in the middle.

"Well," mumbled Angel, swallowing the mouthful of food he had hungrily consumed, "first I have to go see my dad and give him a quick report, but I after that I was thinking we could just hang out and watch a movie."

"Sounds good," she agreed, smiling at him. "Let me just wash up here and then I'll be set to leave."

"Alright, I'm going to go find my dad, but why don't I meet you in the south rec room and you can pick out the movie?"

"'Kay" declared Buffy, and leaning in she gave him a quick kiss before disappearing with a blush. She was still uncomfortable with public displays of affection, something that highly amused her boyfriend. With a grin, Angel stuffed another bite of food into his mouth before casually making his way down the hall in search of his father.

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Twenty minutes later Buffy and Angel were happily ensconced on a couch as they relaxed and watched a movie. Buffy was laying with her back pressed up against Angel's chest, his hands resting lightly around her waist. He was having a difficult time paying attention to the screen instead of the blonde girl in his arms. He had had a long day and an evening of relaxing with his girlfriend was just what he needed.

Glancing down and seeing Buffy's eyes fixed intently on the screen, he carefully moved his hands to gently run down her arms, moving up and down slowly. Reaching her shoulders, he gave them a quick squeeze before moving up to brush aside her hair as he lowered his head to her neck and brushed her skin with his lips. Gasping, Buffy's eyes immediately went wide as her whole body tensed up, though to her credit she didn't move a muscle.

Grinning at her reaction to him, he resumed his ministrations, moving from her jawline down to her shoulder, pausing to take the skin into his mouth as he bit lightly and sucked on it. Moaning, Buffy tilted her head to the side to give him more room as she reached her hands up to wrap around his neck. As a werewolf the stimulation of his teeth on her neck was almost too much to bear and she was glad when he abandoned the spot to resume his path along her shoulder.

"Aaangel," she moaned breathlessly, digging her fingers up into his spiked hair.

Looking up with a smirk, Angel maneuvered himself until he was leaning over her, by this time panting heavily. His lips were soon sealed with hers, his hands running through her hair as he let out a groan. He had been dying to kiss her all night and her lips felt so good against his.

He had had a few girlfriends in the past and he had had his fair share of make out sessions, but with Buffy it was different. The other girls hadn't lasted more than a few weeks, but he had a feeling that Buffy would be different. He felt a connection with her that he hadn't with the other girls.

Pulling away from each other abruptly the two blinked in the sudden light that filled the room, quickly scrambling away from each other as they saw some of their friends standing in the doorway.

"Oh my gosh!" exclaimed Fred, putting a hand to her mouth as her cheeks turned red, though she was grinning slightly.

"We were just watching a video," offered Buffy meekly, running a hand haphazardly through her messy hair.

"Care to watch a video sometime with me, Buff?" asked Xander jokingly, moving to sit in between the two though quickly leaped up again as he heard the low growl Angel emitted.

"Do you mind if we join you guys?" questioned Cordelia, smacking Xander in the head as she passed him on her way to one of the chairs situated around the screen.

"Of course not!" squeaked Buffy, still acutely embarrassed at being caught. "Do you want us to start it over or something?"

"Hey, where's Spike and Faith?" asked Angel, interrupting the conversation. Looking around, Buffy too took in the absence of the brunette and bleached-blonde couple.

"Dunno," said Oz in his usual monosyllabic way.

"I think I saw them heading down the hall earlier, but I don't know where they were headed," supplied Willow, moving to join Cordelia in her chair.

"Hmmm," muttered Angel, shrugging as he pulled Buffy back into his arms as they resumed playing the movie. It wasn't unusual for his sister and her boyfriend to go off together alone, so he wasn't worried.

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Meanwhile, back in Spike bedroom he and Faith were getting pretty intense lying on his bed. They had been going out for a long time and their relationship was as strong as ever, but Faith felt like she was ready to take it to the next level. Werewolves were amorous creatures but the ultimate act of intimacy wasn't indulged in lightly. To mate with another wolf was a serious step, marked with the act of physical love and blessed by the moon goddess. As the night progressed, Faith knew she had made the right choice as she lay in her lover's arms.

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_There you go, another chapter! Finally!!!! Thank you to all those who gave reviews, please let me know what you think of this one and of how the story is progressing. I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this so we'll just have to see. _


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